tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-292358392015-03-03T08:11:30.402-08:00Wandering ScientistEnjoying the Journey....Cloudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09317847285050447789noreply@blogger.comBlogger1175125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29235839.post-49488582929809874642015-02-27T16:28:00.003-08:002015-02-27T16:28:51.711-08:00Weekend Links: The Big, Strange, Wonderful Internet EditionWow, what a wild couple of days on the internet we've had. First the llamas, then the dress, and then the very sad news that Leonard Nimoy had died.<br /><br />I'm going to assume you've read all you want to about the llamas and the dress, although I will point out that <a href="http://tungstenhippo.tumblr.com/post/112230399058/it-is-terrible-when-you-find-out-that-your-idea-of">I found the perfect quote to put up on Tungsten Hippo today</a>.<br /><br />And here are a few really nice things about Leonard Nimoy.<br /><br /><a href="http://the-toast.net/2015/02/27/count-leonard-kind-thing/">He stood up for equal pay</a>.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.tobiasbuckell.com/2015/02/27/thank-you-mr-nimoy-your-portrayal-of-a-mixed-race-person-had-a-big-impact-on-me/">Spock was a role model for biracial kids</a>, and <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/leonoraepstein/spocks-advice-to-a-teenage-girl-will-make-you-cry#.ad8g5o9Oa0">he embraced that</a>.<br /><br />If only more of the geeks who say the idolized him really tried to be like him, eh?<br /><br />Speaking of geeks behaving badly:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.catehuston.com/blog/2015/02/25/honey-i-left-the-tech-industry/">Cate Huston on leaving the tech industry</a>.<br /><br />"The problem is not with the pipeline, it’s with the industry that the pipeline is piping into.&nbsp;"<br />from <a href="https://medium.com/thelist/stop-equating-women-in-tech-with-engineers-e928e9fa1db5">a great post by Rachel Sklar</a>.<br /><br />A <a href="http://pando.com/2015/02/25/ellen-pao-valley-vc-women/">good article in Pando about the Ellen Pao trial</a> going on now, and whether a verdict in her favor will actually change anything.<br /><br />You know, I post a lot of things about sexism (and racism) in the tech industry, and in geek culture in general, but I think it is worth remembering that tech is not all that unique in this regard. It is perhaps behind other industries that have been forced via litigation to improve, but the idea that the tech industry is some odd island of misogyny and racism in an otherwise equitable work world is laughable. And to be honest, there are some aspects of it that are better than what I've seen in other industries. Perhaps this is why I haven't given up on it entirely. Or maybe it is just that I enjoy the actual work too much to give it up.<br /><br />Also, while I think there are some true sexist snakes in both the tech and science world, I think there are far more basically good guys who have just never taken the time to think about fairness and merit in a world with so much bias built in. They have been praised for their rational intelligence for so long, and have done so well by it, that it just doesn't occur to them that there might be areas in which they are not, in fact, applying cold, rational intelligence to their decisions. I think we'll learn how to deal with the sexist snakes far before we figure out how to reach the basically good guys that just don't realize they're part of (and benefiting from) an unfair system. I find more and more men I know are somewhat aware of the problems and ask questions genuinely trying to learn. I'm glad we're having the conversations. Maybe my daughters won't have to have quite so many of them.<br /><br />Anyway, on with the links.<br /><br />This is <a href="http://www.jimchines.com/2015/02/not-broken-flower-horne/">a wonderful post from Annalee Flower Horne on the portrayal of survivors of abuse and assault in books</a>.<br /><br />This <a href="http://daysixtyseven.blogspot.com/2015/02/my-lightbulb-moment.html">post from the mother of an autistic child who was late to talk is amazing</a>. Just amazing. All parents can learn a lot from it, I think. I certainly did.<br /><br />This is <a href="http://katedaviesdesigns.com/2015/02/25/my-strokes-misdiagnosis/">a very generous, but sobering post from Kate Davies on having her stroke misdiagnosed</a>.<br /><br />Hope Jahren wrote a good <a href="http://hopejahrensurecanwrite.com/2015/02/19/how-i-learned-to-love-the-needle/">post about vaccination and the trust gap medical science needs to bridge</a>.<br /><br />This <a href="http://blog.nycep.org/calories-calories-read-all-about-it">post about calorie expenditure is really interesting</a>, albeit a little depressing for anyone who wants to lose weight. I find the idea that one potential benefit of exercise is that it helps the body keep its calories focused on useful things really intriguing. I certainly find that my repetitive strain injury and asthma are overall less bothersome when I'm exercising regularly.<br /><br />Here's <a href="http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/stories/article/65674young_scientists_win_big_at_nunavik_fair/">a cool science fair story</a>.<br /><br />And here's the funny thing to end with: <a href="http://laughingsquid.com/hayward-california-installs-sassy-traffic-signs-in-effort-to-curb-speeding-and-accidents/#.VPCdxTtqUjk.twitter">new traffic signs in Hayward, CA</a>.<br /><br />Cloudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09317847285050447789noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29235839.post-87597104404309300422015-02-24T22:12:00.000-08:002015-02-24T22:20:48.063-08:00I Am Not So SpecialI recently came across an <a href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/commuting-driving-women-workforce/">article about the impact of commute times on the number of women in the workforce</a>. (<a href="https://twitter.com/Geknitics">@Geknitics</a> tweeted it out.) The article discusses how long commutes are often more stressful for women, who are more likely to have the job of keeping the family's schedule on track.<br /><br />That is certainly true in our household- I have always been the person who makes our weeknight dinners, so if my commute is delayed there can be ripple effects that disrupt our entire evening. This is less traumatic now that my kids are older, but when Pumpkin was little a screwed up evening routine often translated into even more disrupted sleep than usual. She <i>really </i>liked routine as a baby and toddler. As I sat in a traffic jam, I could predict the ripple effects through the rest of our evening, leading to me getting only a few hours of sleep that night. It made me want to cry. Of course, I was so sleep deprived in those days that a somewhat stirring television commercial could make me want to cry, but you get the idea.<br /><br />So, I shifted my schedule to make sure that traffic jams were a very rare occurrence, and that our nighttime routines stayed intact. If Mr. Snarky was late, we just ate without him, and kept the routine on schedule. Things rolled merrily along... until they didn't.<br /><br />It is no secret that one of the things that contributed to the timing of my decision to quit my job and start my own company was the fact that my company relocated and made my commute more difficult. The small amount of slack I'd managed to squeeze into our schedule was gone, consumed by the longer commute. Dinners were late a lot and although that no longer translated directly into crappy sleep it still had an impact on our evenings, and we all felt it. I had planned to work at my last job for at least two more years before quitting and starting my own business, but a variety of things combined to make the pressure grow and grow... until last April, I couldn't take it anymore and just quit. The commute was definitely one of the forces applying pressure.<br /><br />There were other forces, too, of course. I am still not ready to write about them in detail. This is partly because I still don't think I really understand what, exactly, happened and partly because there are bridges I'd rather not burn.<br /><br />But you can probably guess some of the reasons, and I'm able to write about things that impacted me over the course of my career. I often felt like I had to work harder than my male colleagues to be taken seriously. I found myself assigned less technical roles, and then I found people (even people I considered supporters) surprised to learn that I could do hands-on technical work. I couldn't see a path for advancement. I felt blocked.<br /><br />All of this is pretty standard stuff, as cited in the <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=web&amp;cd=2&amp;cad=rja&amp;uact=8&amp;ved=0CCUQFjAB&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ncwit.org%2Fsites%2Fdefault%2Ffiles%2Flegacy%2Fpdf%2FNCWIT_TheFacts_rev2010.pdf&amp;ei=0WHtVN6ROda0oQTgjYLICw&amp;usg=AFQjCNEqlw5ZlCFYM9Hsh2SiTyQ4pR2q4g&amp;sig2=2C2ocp9Lr0Okt41Hh-aRmw&amp;bvm=bv.86956481,d.cGU">report about midcareer women leaving IT jobs</a> that I've shared before.<br /><br />So, while there were positive things pulling me to quit, there were a bunch of negative things pushing me to quit, too, and those negative things are depressingly common.<br /><br />Sometimes, I feel empowered to learn that the challenges I face are general, not personal. Not this time. I could certainly put a positive spin on things, but I have a rule that if I'm going to write about something here, I will be honest in what I write. I definitely don't write about everything, but if I write about it, I have to be honest. Otherwise, what's the point?<br /><br />And to be honest, realizing just how in line with common trends my experiences have been makes me feel defeated, not empowered. &nbsp;It is like I came up against a well-mapped mountain range and got lost in it, anyway.<br /><br />Rationally, I know that I am being unfairly harsh to myself. But the negative voice of self-doubt in my head is not particularly rational, and in these early days of this my new endeavor, solid signs that it is going to be a success are rare, which only emboldens that snotty little voice.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yw9U8hQWlcw/VO1me6EvrlI/AAAAAAAAClQ/C2z3PaoE_Cg/s1600/14853535334_dd37b59ae6_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yw9U8hQWlcw/VO1me6EvrlI/AAAAAAAAClQ/C2z3PaoE_Cg/s1600/14853535334_dd37b59ae6_z.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Even with a map, that's not an easy climb.</td></tr></tbody></table><br />I am fighting this the only way I know how: by focusing on the positive things that pulled me in my new direction, and reminding myself that it is too early to know how this story ends. My new company is going to grow slowly by design, because that is how I want to build it. My efforts can look a bit scattered right now, but they are in fact proceeding pretty much according to the plan I laid out when I decided to do this. There is enough money coming in to pay the bills. I need to find more contracts, but that is normal and I have only just started looking seriously, since I gave myself a lot of time last year to decompress. I love that I can write about whatever I want now, without having to ask anyone for permission. I love that I can define for myself what things are worth my time. I love being in charge, even if it is only of myself.<br /><br />In short, there is a lot of good on this new path, and it is quite likely I would have chosen to follow it even if the old path had been nothing but flowers and butterflies.<br /><br />Could I have stayed on my original career path if I'd just tried harder, and maybe found a better map? Maybe. But this new path suits me well, too.<br /><br />Will I be a success story, or a cautionary tale? Only time will tell. Cloudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09317847285050447789noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29235839.post-59181551774142319192015-02-20T17:18:00.001-08:002015-02-20T17:18:57.332-08:00Weekend Links: The Good Writing about Annoying Things EditionMy plans for today were upended when Petunia woke up with a fever and clearly feeling not well at all. So I've been home with a sick kid today. She slept a lot in the morning, which let me get quite a few things done. I write my links post in the afternoon, though... and mostly, she has insisted that I sit next to her on the sofa. She let me do some work while she "snuggled" me by putting her feet on any exposed skin (or skin she could easily cause to become exposed), but that wasn't very conducive to typing.<br /><br />So what I'm say is that this post is a little more rushed than usual.<br /><br />I didn't read the NY Times article about Justine Sacco and "internet shaming" that had everyone talking. I did read a couple of reactions, though. This <a href="http://www.contralbum.com/blog/2015/2/19/mourning-justine-sacco-is-missing-the-point">post from Sam Pritchard</a> is quite good, and references <a href="http://tressiemc.com/2014/12/02/racists-getting-fired-the-sins-of-whiteness-on-social-media/">a piece Tressie McMillan Cottom wrote on the occasion of a different racist getting fired over an ill-judged tweet,</a> about how part of our discomfort with these repercussions is that we aren't used to seeing white people treated as having a race. I will not do justice to either piece trying to summarize them, so just go read them.<br /><br />You might also want to read <a href="http://www.shakesville.com/2015/02/the-falsest-of-false-equivalencies.html">Shakesville about the poor treatment Adria Richards received in the NYT article</a>, and note the difference in outcomes for her and the man who was fired for the stupid dongle joke that set that story in motion. As she points out, the guy who was fired was violating a published policy at a professional conference. Perhaps he was just not expecting to be made to pay a price for misconduct. I don't necessarily think that firing him was a proportionate reaction, but then I don't know what else was in his HR file.<br /><br />Moving on... sort of. This <a href="http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/lets-call-female-online-harassment-what-it-really-is-gender-terrorism-481">article from Anne Therieult does a good job arguing that we should consider the sort of harassment that Adria Richards suffered to be a form of terrorism</a>. It might sound like an extreme label for this, but it does have a terrorizing effect, and not just on the direct target.<br /><br />Here is <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/internet-and-golden-age-bully-271800">an excerpt from a book on the subject by Danielle Keats Citron</a>, who is an academic studying this issue.<br /><br />And here is a <a href="https://the-pastry-box-project.net/eileen-webb/2015-january-19">Pastry Box post from Eileen Webb about how perhaps we all need to sit with the discomfort brought on by people speaking up about their mistreatment</a>. It is aimed specifically at the tech industry, but I think it applies broadly.<br /><br />Moving on for real this time: here's <a href="http://fortune.com/2015/02/17/if-you-spent-a-year-interviewing-women-about-how-they-balanced-what-would-you-learn/">a list of things Susie Orman Schall learned when she interviewed a bunch of women about how they achieve "work-life balance."</a>&nbsp;The points about how achieving balance means&nbsp;making choices and takes effort particularly resonated with me. At least in my experience, there is no magic solution to making all the pieces you want in your life fit together into a satisfying whole. You have to look at the problem, analyze it, and try out solutions until you find what works for you.<br /><br />Have you ever wondered why people with chronic fatigue and/or pain syndromes often refer to themselves as "spoonies"? I had. <a href="http://www.butyoudontlooksick.com/articles/written-by-christine/the-spoon-theory/">Here is the answer</a> (I think). Either way, it is a good analogy to help the rest of us better understand what living with that sort of disease is like.<br /><br />Brittney Cooper wrote <a href="http://www.salon.com/2015/02/18/black_queer_feminist_erased_from_history_meet_the_most_important_legal_scholar_youve_likely_never_heard_of/">a profile of Dr. Pauli Murray</a>, a Black, queer, feminist legal scholar whose work Ruth Bader Ginsburg referenced and who has largely been forgotten. There is an interesting example of <i>not </i>appropriating work in the profile, too, in which Ginsburg gives proper credit to the people whose work she used in a brief.<br /><br />I usually end with something funny... and this is funny in a LOLSOB sort of way:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/if-critics-wrote-about-the-male-best-director-nominees-the-same-way-they-write-about-selma-director-ava-duvernay#.VOdWfZwP1gA.twitter">If critics wrote about male directors the way they are writing about Ava Duvernay</a>.<br /><br />In other news, I posted <a href="http://mrnelsonbooks.com/2015/02/18/zou-and-the-box-of-kisses/">another kid's book we love</a> over at my author site. And here's <a href="http://crappythingsimade.tumblr.com/post/111232135366/drum-i-made-the-original-drum-quite-awhile-ago-my">a drum that Petunia and I made together</a>. If you have access to Nature Chemistry, you can also read <a href="http://www.nature.com/nchem/journal/v7/n3/full/nchem.2190.html">a review of Navigating the Path to Industry</a>. If you don't have access, the ebook is cheaper than even renting access to the review, so if you're curious you might as well just buy the book! <a href="http://annorlundaenterprises.com/books/navigating-the-path-to-industry/">This page</a> includes all the links. The GumRoad option includes a PDF, if that is your preferred format.<br /><br />And here is a proper light-hearted ending: the <a href="http://petitepointplace.tumblr.com/post/110265934185/finished-bunnies">evolution of bunnies, in needlework</a>.Cloudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09317847285050447789noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29235839.post-86195836066655787242015-02-18T22:36:00.001-08:002015-02-18T22:36:11.975-08:00No ComplaintsI have a bunch of little tidbits, none of them big enough for a post of their own. So I'll put them together even though they don't have anything more in common than the fact that they are bouncing around my brain at the same time.<br /><br />------------------------------<br /><br />Every now and then, one of my kids has what I guess is a developmental leap. It seems strange to be using that term, which I associate with the baby and toddler phase, about my 5 and 7 year olds, but I think it is accurate. Anyway, I always feel about three steps behind when this happens.<br /><br />We're in the midst of one of these periods with Pumpkin. My little baby who screamed if you tried to stop interacting with her for even a few minutes, the one who became a little girl who never wanted to play without an adult keeping her company, is now pushing for more independence. She wants to get email on her Kindle Fire. She wants to know when she can walk to and from school on her own. I struggle to explain that these things are complicated, and require us to work out new guidelines for her.<br /><br />Mr. Snarky and I are trying to figure out what freedoms to give her, and what rules to have. And what potential bad things to explain. This is hard, and requires time we don't really have right now.<br /><br />So what we'll probably do first is leave her alone in our house for a short period of time while I run up to the store. I told her she needs to practice answering the phone when I call, and then we'll work out a time to try this out.<br /><br />Still, this is better than screaming every time I try to go to the bathroom. Come too think of it, she's even stopped barging in on me when I'm having my shower. I call that progress.<br /><br />------------------------------<br /><br />I've decided I need to experiment more with advertising. I've run some campaigns for <a href="http://tungstenhippo.com/">Tungsten Hippo</a> in the past- it is my <a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2013/08/a-project-of-ones-own.html">learning project</a>, after all. But the results were sometimes hard to gauge since I'm not really selling anything on that site. I did some analyses based on number of hits on the website, or number of new subscriptions to the <a href="http://tungstenhippo.com/content/mailing-list">weekly digest newsletter</a>, but I wanted something with more direct measures of what might make people actually spend money. So I decided to run an AdWords campaign for <a href="http://annorlundaenterprises.com/books/navigating-the-path-to-industry/">Navigating the Path to Industry</a>. It hasn't been a direct financial success- I've spent a little more than I've made in additional sales. But that is itself an interesting piece of data. I've also learned about which keywords have performed the best, and I can take some of that information and tweak my other marketing material (namely, the book description on Amazon and the book's webpage).<br /><br />So, maybe I need to set myself a slightly larger budget and do some more experiments and focus on the return in useful information than the return in dollars, at least for a little while.<br /><br />-----------------------------<br /><br />I need to do more yoga. There are all sorts of problems in my way. I can't find the right kind of class near me. This strikes me as ridiculous- I live in Southern California! There are yoga studios all over the place. By the fashionable yoga style right now is a very vigorous yoga, sometimes even combined with Pilates. The goal is exercise. That is not my goal. My goal is deep soft tissue healing. I prefer a yoga style that is sometimes called "restorative," in which the poses focus more on stretching and blood flow and you hold them for longer periods of time. The last class I had was with a bunch of septuagenarians (I am not exaggerating) but it is in a very inconvenient location for me now. I'm sure I can find a class. I just need to search harder and maybe accept a less convenient time or place.<br /><br />In the meantime, I'm trying to restart my own practice at home. But my kids have other ideas. They construct elaborate "houses" out of our ottoman-like things and various toys. I never know what to call the ottoman-like things, so here is an old picture showing them:<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-08ZKxCuDeP4/VOV-j5Mz90I/AAAAAAAACks/GpmqMM2fNg4/s1600/ottomans_cropped.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-08ZKxCuDeP4/VOV-j5Mz90I/AAAAAAAACks/GpmqMM2fNg4/s1600/ottomans_cropped.jpg" height="273" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ottoman/coffee table things, with half of Pumpkin at 9 months</td></tr></tbody></table>Once the kids got old enough to be a threat to the TV (or to have the TV be threat to them, before we upgraded to a wall mounted flat screen), we moved two of the ottoman things in front of our entertainment center. They have stayed there because we shove the cubes full of "kitchen stupps" (Petunia's mispronunciation of "kitchen stuff") under them, which &nbsp;makes our living room look slightly less overrun with toys. But the kids pull them out and construct houses, and then there is o floor space.<br /><br />I can't be bothered trying to describe a "house," either, so <a href="http://crappythingsimade.tumblr.com/post/111445692136/house-this-is-a-creation-of-my-5-year-old-it-is-a">I posted a picture to my Crappy Things I Made to Stop the Whining tumblr</a>, which also occasionally hosts things my kids have created. That particular house was from last month.<br /><br />We don't typically make the kids clean up the living room every night, but since the living room is literally the only place in our house big enough to do a proper reclining twist position... this may need to change. If we do go ahead and add on another room, there will be space for some yoga in there, I think. But that is at best five months away from completion (and hasn't even been contracted for, let alone started). I don't think I can wait.<br /><br />Along those same lines, I need to come up with a temporary solution to the storage problem in our current office, so that I can work at my desk again, instead of the dining room table. The light is nicer in the dining room, but the ergonomics are better at my desk and ergonomics needs to win. I have a old repetitive strain injury, and it is starting to flare up. I have finally learned to take the early warning signs seriously and make changes before I am unable to hold things that I can't afford to drop in my right hand.<br /><br />------------------------------<br /><br />Petunia has been on a cleaning rampage (except of the current house in the living room, which she wouldn't take down so I had to do it). Last night, she wouldn't go to sleep. I gave up at 10 p.m. and came out and had a beer. As I was heading to bed a little before 11, she came out of her room, handed me the Kindle case I had left by her bed during my unsuccessful attempt to keep her company while she fell asleep, and then joined me in my bed for some more tossing and turning.<br /><br />When we got up this morning, she showed us what she'd been doing between 10 and 11, when we assumed she was sleeping. She had cleaned her room.<br /><br />Then tonight after dinner, she demanded I put a swiffer cloth on our swiffer and she swiffered the entire house, then berated me for not having a kid-sized broom so she could sweep, too.<br /><br />-----------------------------<br /><br />In short, my life is full of wonderful things and problems that I can only consider good problems to have. No complaints here.Cloudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09317847285050447789noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29235839.post-5550180220911410692015-02-15T22:14:00.000-08:002015-02-16T21:09:33.360-08:00Ups and DownsChinese New Year is this upcoming Thursday. A former colleague of my husband threw a party to celebrate, so we spent this afternoon and evening enjoying the chance to see some wonderful people we don't see very often these days and eating delicious food. We even got to help make some dumplings, although our technique was nowhere near the standard set by our hostess and the other Chinese people at the party. They were gracious about our ineptitude.<br /><br />It was delightful... until Petunia announced that her "throat hurt" (her word for feeling like she's going to throw up). It was almost time to go, anyway, so I hurriedly got the kids ready to leave while Mr. Snarky said good-bye to everyone. I even dug a plastic bag out of my purse for the car ride home. Just in case. It wasn't needed, and Petunia is sleeping now. We'll see what the night holds.<br /><br />The party was at a beautiful house in one of the nicest nearby parts of San Diego, up on a hill with a 180-degree view out to the ocean. Mr. Snarky and I used to live in the flatlands near the bottom of this particular hill (not that I'm complaining- that was when we lived walking distance to the beach!) and we would sometimes go for long walks over the hill and around the neighborhoods at the top of the hill, enjoying the view and gawking at the beautiful houses. This was obviously before we had kids, although Mr. Snarky would sometimes push Pumpkin in our jogging stroller around the same route, since she would only nap when in motion or on a person, and I was almost always desperate for a nap myself.<br /><br />I remember walking past this house when it was getting renovated, so it was sort of surreal to be inside it. We spent some time out on the deck, enjoying a view of the marine layer that had rolled in. This was still beautiful. It was hard not to feel a little bit jealous.<br /><br />Early in the festivities, we all walked to a nearby viewpoint. On the way back, Petunia told me that she liked the fancy house, but that she liked our house better, because that was where we played games and slept. It was sweet to hear. I actually like our house and our neighborhood a lot, and while I would love to have a deck with that view, I am reasonably content with our nice backyard with the big avocado tree.<br /><br />We are, however, looking to add on to our house. We want a bigger office, and to move Petunia from her little room to the bigger room that is currently our guest room and office. I almost started that sentence as "we need..." but that is bunk. We don't need more space. We just want it. It will make our lives better, but our lives are pretty damn good as they are.<br /><br />Anyway, we have been working with a design firm and have a design we like and think we can afford. We need to do our taxes to be sure. 2014 was an unusual year for us and we have pretty much no idea what to expect when we get our tax return completed.<br /><br />Meanwhile, I really want the new office, so I can sit and work at a desk with a keyboard tray again. I legitimately need this bit to happen, as my current set up is not doing good things for my old repetitive strain injury. If we cannot afford the remodel, I will have to find a way to make this happen in our current office.<br /><br />The uncertainty is frustrating, even more so because there is a voice in my head telling me that this would not be a problem if I hadn't quit my full time job. This may or may not be true, but it is irrelevant. Thankfully, I was reminded of this at the party today, too. One of the other guests was telling me about why his wife had quit her job at my husband's company- a company that my husband likes and thinks is full of good people. I recognized something about the story. Sometimes, a good company full of good people can still be all wrong for you. My former work situation was wrong for me, and the wrongness was overflowing to impact the rest of my family. Things are better now, whether or not we end up being able to afford the new office.<br /><br />Still. I'm feeling a little extra motivation to get things moving. This morning, I finally wrote up and posted instructions for <a href="http://tungstenhippo.com/content/buying-ebooks-your-kindle-places-other-amazon">how to buy an ebook some place other than Amazon and load it onto your Kindle</a>. This has been on my list of things to do at Tungsten Hippo since the beginning of the year. I sent an email about a potential contract. It would be small, but it would be a new client and that would be a good thing. I sent an email about a potential review of <a href="http://annorlundaenterprises.com/books/navigating-the-path-to-industry/">Navigating the Path to Industry</a>. I also set up a trial Google AdWords campaign for the book. I have some good, specific keywords so I am cautiously optimistic that this will at least be an informative experiment.<br /><br />As I was telling someone at the party, sometimes I am full of optimism about my new work goals. Other times, I wonder what the hell I've done. The trick, I think, is to write my to do lists during the optimistic times, and just keep trucking through them regardless of the ups and downs of my mood. So that's my goal for the next little bit: just keep on truckin'.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-82lKzSPxxoc/VOGKUGQjPPI/AAAAAAAACkU/Jv-pYFriuUE/s1600/truck.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-82lKzSPxxoc/VOGKUGQjPPI/AAAAAAAACkU/Jv-pYFriuUE/s1600/truck.jpg" height="299" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A decorated Pakistani truck. I found the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truck_art_in_Pakistan">photo via wikipedia</a>.</td></tr></tbody></table><br />Cloudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09317847285050447789noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29235839.post-30079050458039814742015-02-13T18:09:00.001-08:002015-02-13T18:09:11.925-08:00Weekend Reading: The Wow, February is Short EditionAnother week has sped by... When I lived in cold places, I thought February was the longest damn month. Out here, where winter is mild to non-existent, it tends to speed past. I have a sort of work-related trip coming up at the beginning of March and I had a little panic session this week in which I realized that it is past time to be booking my tickets and that I really need to start working on my talk now.<br /><br />Anyway, on to the links. I don't have that many (see above about panicking), but I do have some.<br /><br />This <a href="http://fusion.net/story/47569/chapel-hill-shooting-my-best-friend-was-killed-and-i-dont-know-why/">interview with the friend of one of the young Muslim students killed in North Carolina</a> is heartbreaking. I hear there is also a StoryCorps recording with one of them, but I have not been able to listen to it. I always struggle with finding the balance between self-care and what we owe victims in situations like this. In some ways, I think we need to look at the tragedy until it hurts us, so that we will be moved to do what we need to do as a society to stop these things from happening. But I also have to protect my own sanity. I will say that I get very angry when I see this crime explained as "a dispute over a parking space," as if that is a reason that should make any sense and as if that makes it not a crime motivated by hate. There are so many things we as a society need to work on. Perhaps we need to let our hearts break a little more than is comfortable so that we'll find a way to actually work on them. I don't know.<br /><br />This <a href="http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/02/12/f-b-i-director-james-comey-on-how-everyones-a-little-bit-racist/?_r=0">summary of a speech by FBI director James Comey</a> is somewhat encouraging. Not encouraging enough that we can stop affirming that Black lives matter and demanding that law enforcement do a better job protecting them. But somewhat encouraging, nonetheless.<br /><br />A female CEO writes about <a href="http://www.fastcompany.com/3042233/strong-female-lead/how-im-treated-differently-than-my-male-cofounder">how her male cofounder is treated differently than her</a>.<br /><br />Roxane Gay has a piece in Fortune about <a href="http://fortune.com/2015/02/12/women-shouldnt-have-to-lead-like-men-to-be-successful/">how workplaces need to support people with varying personalities</a>. ("Not just a**holes," says my inner snark.)<br /><br />I like this <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/10/princess-awesome-kickstarter_n_6654034.html?ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000037">idea for a kid's clothing company</a>. I haven't had a chance to go check out their Kickstarter and see if I want to contribute (probably not unless it is running for several more months- we're cutting back on most non-essentials as we try to figure out if we can afford the house renovations we want to do), but I agree that little girls shouldn't have to choose between dinosaurs and dresses.<br /><br />Despite spending four years in Chicago, I was unaware of the existence of <a href="http://chicagoweathercenter.com/blog/ice-volcanoes-along-lake-michigan-products-of-the-bitter-chill-have-you-seen-them">ice volcanoes on Lake Michigan</a>. @SarcastiCarrie sorted me out.<br /><br />Speaking of SarcastiCarrie- check out her latest submission to Crappy Things I Made to Stop the Whining. <a href="http://crappythingsimade.tumblr.com/post/110675999961/snowplow-another-submission-from-sarcasticarrie">It is a pretty awesome snow plow</a>.<br /><br />And while you're there, check out my latest post, which is <a href="http://crappythingsimade.tumblr.com/post/110768909521/dragonflies-t-shirt-ok-ill-confess-i-dont">a shirt I designed that my daughter loves</a> so much she talked me into getting a matching one for her best friend. Bonus- the model in the picture is my daughter!<br /><br />If you click through from that post, you'll discover that I'm now <a href="https://www.etsy.com/shop/AnnorlundaDesigns?ref=hdr_shop_menu">selling my t-shirts on Etsy</a>. One of the reasons I made the switch was because the manufacturer I'm using has the slimmer "girl's cut" t-shirts that my daughter prefers. So, if you want to get one of the NOT a Princess or Not JUST a Princess t-shirts I designed to support <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00N9HIIBE/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=B00N9HIIBE&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=wanderscient-20&amp;linkId=LLFTW2MNSBNFLWDZ">Petunia, the Girl who was NOT A Princess</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=wanderscient-20&amp;l=as2&amp;o=1&amp;a=B00N9HIIBE" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> for an elementary school age girl, now you can get it in the shirt style that girls that age tend to prefer. I'll be designing more shirts soon. Once I stop panicking about the upcoming trip, that is.Cloudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09317847285050447789noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29235839.post-19146548632931190172015-02-11T12:16:00.000-08:002015-02-11T12:16:41.432-08:00Marketing and Talking about the Things I LoveIn my <a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2015/02/becoming-me-part-ii.html">last post</a>, I mentioned that one of the "not true for me" values I absorbed in academia was a distaste for management. I'm long over that now, and am now moving past another false value I absorbed: that marketing is easier and less worthy of respect than technical work.<br /><br />This particular false belief- which I would never have said out loud!- stuck with me well into my post-academic career. Frankly, a lot of scientists and techies in industry also tend to look down on marketing as "easier" than what we do.<br /><br />I can now categorically state that this is utter bunk. Effective marketing is HARD. I am not exaggerating at all when I say that I think the success or failure of my business is going to come down to how well I learn to market my products and services. Sure, I have a lot of other things to learn, and if I don't learn those well, I'll probably fail, too. But those things- how to write apps, how to format more complicated ebooks, even how to create more appealing t-shirt mockups- are well within my comfort zone. They are, primarily, technical problems. I'll research them, and practice and develop the technical skills I need. When I research them, I'll probably be able to find the "right" answers, or something close to them, and if I can't, I'll be able to derive these answers based on other technical information I find.<br /><br />Marketing is a completely different thing. What is the "right" way to market something? Who knows? Similar to management problems, marketing problems are at their root problems of understanding how people behave, and that is an endlessly varying topic. I'm sure I'll eventually find some resources that help guide me, and develop my own methods of experimenting without spending a fortune... but there are no first principles here, not really. It is going to be one endless, high stakes experiment. It is a good thing that tackling touch challenges and learning new things are a couple of my actual career values!<br /><br />So, I'm sending sincere apologies to all of the marketing people I ever thought had an easier job than I did. I was so very, very wrong.<br /><br />-----------------------------<br /><br />I've actually been experimenting with marketing for awhile now, via my <a href="http://tungstenhippo.com/">Tungsten Hippo site</a> and via marketing <a href="http://annorlundaenterprises.com/books/navigating-the-path-to-industry/">Navigating the Path to Industry</a>. I have learned a little, but not as much as I'd like. Mostly, I feel like I've learned that I have a lot more I need to learn.<br /><br />One of the things I've learned is that the absolute best marketing happens when a fan shares his or her enthusiasm for something. I don't necessarily believe in the literal idea of karma, but I love the concept of it, and in that spirit, I want to share three things I've loved recently.<br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PVWS7nuGykg/VNu1aVh-6mI/AAAAAAAACjw/cMJLJmhA3jw/s1600/jemesin_book.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PVWS7nuGykg/VNu1aVh-6mI/AAAAAAAACjw/cMJLJmhA3jw/s1600/jemesin_book.jpg" /></a>The first is a book that has been waiting for me on my ereader for far too long, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002ZDJZO2/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=B002ZDJZO2&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=wanderscient-20&amp;linkId=WB6PRWCQBVD2VQYO">The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms,</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=wanderscient-20&amp;l=as2&amp;o=1&amp;a=B002ZDJZO2" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />&nbsp;by N.K. Jemisin. I&nbsp;finally read it last weekend and... wow, it was wonderful. Beautiful writing, fast-paced and engaging plot, and interesting, believable characters. It also had an ending that I did not see coming and loved. Sometimes, I love a book right up until the ending, and then the author stumbles and leaves me with an unsatisfied feeling. Not this time. If you're into speculative fiction at all, read this book. If you aren't, consider reading it anyway. It might win you over.<br /><br />The second is a podcast that I'm actually still loving. Longtime readers might remember that I loved the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/">BBC History of the World in 100 Objects podcast</a>. I was a little bereft when I finished it, but I've finally found another podcast I love just as much. <a href="http://historyofenglishpodcast.com/">The History of English podcast </a>is a fascinating blend of history, archaeology, and linguistics.<br /><br />The organizing principle is telling the history of English, but to do so, Kevin Stroud starts back at the very beginning, with the first language of our language group, Indo-European. He traces the development of all the languages that made their way into English- Greek, Latin, Celtic, French, and Germanic dialects. He also discusses the people who were speaking those languages, and their histories. I am learning so much, and since I will probably not retain anywhere near all this new information, I may revisit this podcast again later.<br /><br />However, there are some tidbits I've picked up that I'm likely to remember. For instance, the idea of an alphabet- i.e., a system of writing based on fundamental phonemes- happened once, and all of our various alphabets have evolved from the first one, which was developed by the ancient Phonecians. Tracing the development of our alphabet has been one of the surprisingly fascinating parts of the podcast- there is an entire episode on the letter C which is just great- so I'll almost certainly buy the companion audiobook, <a href="http://historyofenglishpodcast.com/alphabet-history/">The History of the Alphabet</a>, when I finish this podcast.<br /><br />Another interesting tidbit I just picked up this week: the phrase "to egg him on" is very, very old, dating at least from when the Vikings came to England. Egg at that time had a meaning of to prod or poke, and actually derived from the same word that gave us our modern word "edge."<br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WYw-vEbygvo/VNu2ufiiY5I/AAAAAAAACj8/3L6hq0PjFYQ/s1600/fortofyoungsaplings.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WYw-vEbygvo/VNu2ufiiY5I/AAAAAAAACj8/3L6hq0PjFYQ/s1600/fortofyoungsaplings.jpg" height="200" width="200" /></a>The final thing I want to share is a short ebook, The Fort of Young Saplings. I posted it at Tungsten Hippo a few weeks ago, and it is just wonderful. It is also a great example of the strengths of the short ebook format- it would not support a longer book, but is long enough that I prefer to read on an ereader versus a website. I read it over two or three evenings, and ereaders are better at remembering your place than websites! So if you're wondering why I am so enthusiastic about short ebooks, <a href="http://tungstenhippo.com/content/fort-young-saplings">go over to the Tungsten Hippo post</a> and check it out, and maybe give this book a try.<br /><br />And of course, if you're won over by the format, I'd be thrilled if you'd bookmark the site, follow on social media (<a href="https://twitter.com/TungstenHippo">Twitter</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://tungstenhippo.tumblr.com/">Tumblr</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/tungstenhippo">Facebook</a>, or <a href="https://www.pinterest.com/tungstenhippo/">Pinterest</a>) or <a href="http://tungstenhippo.com/content/mailing-list">sign up for the newsletter</a>! (See, I'm working on marketing....)<br /><br />Now it is your turn! Do you have any thing you've loved lately and want to share? Put it in the comments.Cloudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09317847285050447789noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29235839.post-61155107745626996352015-02-08T09:19:00.002-08:002015-02-08T09:31:17.490-08:00Becoming Me, Part IIAs I mentioned in the weekend links post, I've been really busy lately. It has been a good busy- a lot of things I set in motion in the early part of January came back around in the last couple of weeks. (I write in more detail about my business activities in <a href="https://tinyletter.com/foundingchaos">my monthly newsletter</a>- I prefer to keep those details out of this blog. The next issue comes out this upcoming Friday.)<br /><br />I'd also agreed back in December to give a talk based on the first part of <a href="http://annorlundaenterprises.com/books/navigating-the-path-to-industry/">Navigating the Path to Industry</a>, and that talk was on Friday. My topic was "getting ready to search for a non-academic job," and I took the material in part I of the book and expanded on it a bit. One of the themes I wanted to touch on was the idea that you have to change your mindset and do the work of figuring out what actually matters to you. Academia is a culture, and like all cultures, it has a set of values. When you've spent a lot of time- in many cases, your entire adult life!- in a culture, you'll absorb its values.<br /><br />I think this is one of the things that makes it so scary to look for a job outside of academia: the values you've absorbed tell you that leaving academia is a sign of failure. But of course, it is not a sign of failure, not at all. There are plenty of successful, happy people outside of academia! The problem is that the mindset and values that we pick up during our time in academia makes it hard to really see the options.<br /><br />While I worked on these slides, I thought about my own path, and could see that it has taken me many, many years to really leave other people's ideas of success behind and figure out what actually matters to me.<br /><br />Here is what I have finally realized: all I really <i>have </i>to do with my work is make enough money to support myself and my family. Everything beyond that is up to me to prioritize. I get to decide what success looks like for me, and it doesn't really matter what anyone else thinks.<br /><br />This was the realization that helped me take the step of quitting my full time job to do what I'm doing now.<br /><br />It was a long time coming. As <a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2015/01/becoming-me-part-i.html">good as getting a PhD has been for me personally</a>, there is no question that I absorbed some values that weren't actually in keeping with what really matter to me. As I look back over my career, I can see several points in time when I made progress towards leaving those false for me values behind, and figuring out what my own career values are.<br /><br />The first step was probably my decision to take a job at a biotech company rather than a postdoctoral fellowship. Most of the advice I got was to take the postdoc. It was at a fairly prestigious place, and most people were of the opinion it would set me up to pursue either an academic position or a career in industry. Basically, they were arguing that it would give me more flexibility. And maybe it would have. But when I looked at the two jobs on offer, the work I'd be doing in the postdoc was nowhere near as interesting as the work the biotech wanted me to do. In the postdoc, I was going to be trained- they had a system of doing things, and they were going to show me how to do things their way. In the biotech job, I was going to be figuring out problems on my own. Now, there is nothing wrong with training, but I love the challenge of figuring things out. This in fact turns out to be one of my core career values. At the time, I couldn't articulate this so clearly, but my gut instinct was that the job was the right choice for me, so that's the choice I made. (It didn't hurt that the job paid twice what the postdoc did!)<br /><br />The next point at which I remember really making progress towards understanding what matters to me was a little less than five years later. I was working in my third job, which was the one in which I was being converted into a project manager. I had thoroughly absorbed the mindset that management is a waste of time, something <i>less </i>than being a hands on scientist or techie. I was clearly rather good at project management- my projects were succeeding and coming in on time and within budget. But I struggled to view what I did as "real" work, and was experiencing my first real bout of career angst.<br /><br />I can't remember who suggested that I see a career counselor/coach, but it was a great idea. I worked with a wonderful coach, and really learned a lot about what matters to me. One of the best exercises was a career values worksheet, in which I went through a long list of possible values and indicated how much each mattered to me. (You can find a lot of these worksheets online. <a href="http://www.heinz.cmu.edu/download.aspx?id=81">This one</a> looks similar to the one I did.)<br /><br />At the end of my six week session, I had three possible career paths and was struggling to figure out which one to choose. The coach couldn't tell me what to do, she could just give me some tools to help me figure it out for myself. Although those sessions ended with me still unsure what to do next, they were immensely helpful, because they gave me the framework in which I've worked through these issues ever since.<br /><br />I'd made good progress, but was still unsure what to do next. At the time, Mr. Snarky and I lived near the beach, and were in the habit of taking long walks on the beach. Ah, the time before kids.... Anyway, during one of these walks, we realized we were both not that happy at work, we both wanted to do some serious traveling before having kids, and we had the money to allow us to do this. So a new plan formed, and we both went to ask for four month leaves of absence from our jobs. We both expected to be told no, and were prepared to resign. Instead, we were both told yes. We launched into a period of intense travel planning, and a few months later, set out on <a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2006/06/hello-world.html">our big trip</a>.<br /><br />Talking about the transformative properties of travel is cliche, but I came back from that trip with a more balanced view of what a successful life might look like.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YiGC2w-aJtY/VNeYB2N1vHI/AAAAAAAACjY/0_hJ_JRif_8/s1600/moai.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YiGC2w-aJtY/VNeYB2N1vHI/AAAAAAAACjY/0_hJ_JRif_8/s1600/moai.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Among other things, contemplating the moai at the quarry on Easter Island will make <br />you think about how things don't always turn out exactly as we plan.</td></tr></tbody></table><br />Less than a year after returning from that trip, I was pregnant with our first child. That was the start of almost seven years in which I didn't worry so much about my overall life plan, focusing instead on just keeping my head above water. I did make some career moves during those years. I realized that the job I returned to after my trip was never going to make me happy, and <a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2008/03/trade-offs.html">made a change to another job</a>. By the time <a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2010/11/ch-ch-ch-changes.html">I was laid off from that job</a>, I had an inkling that what I really wanted to do was be out on my own, but I was not quite ready to make that leap, either financially or emotionally.<br /><br />Over the next couple of years, I <a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2012/02/on-ambition-and-motherhood.html">recognized my own ambitions</a>. I was ready to make the leap, but was blocked by something. Fear, mostly, with a dash of insecurity. I found another career counselor, and she helped me understand what was holding me back. I made the plan I am currently living- working about half time as a consultant/contractor and using the remaining time (and some of money contracting brings in) to bootstrap a company. I had a nice conservative plan for how to get there, in keeping with my desire not to rock my family's financial boat. But that plan was taking longer than I'd hoped to work, and then things went a bit sour at my job, and <a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2014/04/diversions-unexpected-and-otherwise.html">I ended up just quitting</a>. &nbsp;I am extremely fortunate that I landed essentially in the situation for which I'd been aiming.<br /><br />I still struggle with self-doubt and feeling like I need to "prove myself." But I am better able to shut those feelings down now. I've adopted "All I really have to do is support myself and my family" as my new mantra, and I'm trying to relax and enjoy this opportunity to really be me.<br /><br /><i>This is something of a follow on to <a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2015/01/becoming-me-part-i.html">Becoming Me, Part I,</a> which focused on the path up to and through graduate school. As with all of my navel gazing posts, it is <a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2015/01/this-is-not-advice.html">not really advice</a>. I'm writing about my own path to a state of reasonable career happiness- other people's paths may be quite different.</i>Cloudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09317847285050447789noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29235839.post-76007967511162360352015-02-06T17:49:00.002-08:002015-02-06T17:49:35.468-08:00Weekend Reading: The Where Did That Week Go EditionWow! Things have been busy here lately, both with work and home things. I hate having a week go by with no posts, but sometimes, it can't be avoided. I tried to write a post Wednesday night, but couldn't make my thoughts coalesce into anything coherent, so I went and read a book instead.<br /><br />I hope to be back to posting next week. In the meantime, here are some links for you to read:<br /><br /><a href="http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2015/02/04/science-communication-gender-stereotypes-sexism/">When neuroscience papers about gender differences get publicized, stereotype reinforcements often get added</a>... even when they are not in the original paper. This is one reason why I always caution people to be very, very careful about studies that find gender differences in cognitive abilities, or behaviors, or anything, really. As this article points out, scientists are people, and their stereotyped beliefs can influence how they present their work- and then the stereotyped beliefs of the people publicizing or writing about the work can distort things further. (Another reason I always caution people to be very, very careful about studies that find gender differences: it is most common for the studies to find a bigger variation within each gender than between the genders- but that gets overlooked. And that's not even considering the fact that treating gender as a strict binary is probably not a scientifically rigorous thing to do....)<br /><br />This <a href="http://themighty.com/2015/01/someone-asked-my-son-with-autism-why-eye-contact-is-hard-this-was-his-answer/">answer from an autistic boy about why making eye contact is hard</a> is so, so good. I think a lot of us have a very limited understanding of how sensory input is received and processed by autistic people, and that causes us to lack empathy about how they are responding. Which is sort of ironic, really. I am far from perfect in this regard, and want to do better and help my children learn to do better when they come across other kids who are on the autism spectrum. Therefore, I am really looking forward to Steve Silberman's upcoming book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00L9AY254/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=B00L9AY254&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=wanderscient-20&amp;linkId=CRNFLNRGGOP76I5R">NeuroTribes.</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=wanderscient-20&amp;l=as2&amp;o=1&amp;a=B00L9AY254" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br /><div><br /></div>Out of a sense of self-preservation, I continue to not read what Jonathan Chait (or almost anyone else) is saying about "political correctness", but <a href="http://www.contralbum.com/blog/2015/2/5/political-correctness-is-more-reasonable-than-jonathan-chait">this response came across my Twitter timeline so many times that I broke down and read it</a> and it was definitely worth my time. It is a response to Chait's piece, but it really stands on its own and has some really thought-provoking points.<br /><br />Did you see that <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2015/2/4/7982099/twitter-ceo-sent-memo-taking-personal-responsibility-for-the">the Twitter CEO has said that they suck at handling abuse</a>? I am cautiously hopeful this means that they're going to start getting better.<br /><br />And that's all I have this week!<br /><br />Cloudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09317847285050447789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29235839.post-42215093494735360962015-01-30T17:45:00.003-08:002015-01-30T17:46:34.247-08:00Weekend Reading: The Focus on the Writing Worth Reading EditionSo, you probably all heard about Jonathan Chait's article decrying the rise of "identity politics" or some such thing.<br /><br />I didn't read it, and I don't intend to read it. As I said on Twitter:<br /><br /><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">But fact there are people who think that we once had that world &amp; "identity politics" is what's threatening it? What can I do but laugh?<br />— Wandering Scientist (@wandsci) <a href="https://twitter.com/wandsci/status/561254678001106944">January 30, 2015</a></blockquote><br /><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">There are so many smart, insightful writers whose work makes me understand my world more fully. I'll spend my time on them.<br />— Wandering Scientist (@wandsci) <a href="https://twitter.com/wandsci/status/561255511585476609">January 30, 2015</a></blockquote><br />So I did read <a href="http://www.vox.com/2015/1/29/7945119/all-politics-is-identity-politics">Matt Yglesias' excellent piece about how all politics is identity politics</a>&nbsp;and <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jan/28/pc-culture-freedom-of-speech-freedom-to-be-offended?CMP=share_btn_tw">Jessica Valenti's explanation about how we're free to be offended</a>.<br /><br />And perhaps Chait and other like him should stop and think about <a href="http://jezebel.com/the-cops-dont-care-about-violent-online-threats-what-d-1682577343">what it is like when someone really tries to stop you from expressing your opinions</a>. (As an aside... note that this piece includes a section that demonstrates online threats <i>can </i>be taken seriously, when they're directed against the right people. I would love to see an explanation as to why online posts that threaten police warrant investigation and arrest, whereas online posts that threaten women writers and women game developers are considered no big deal. Or maybe I wouldn't, because it would probably make me want to scream.)<br /><br />Here is an excellent <a href="https://storify.com/laralyn/it-s-just-how-bowling-works">series of tweets questioning why bystanders are shrugging and saying that death and rape threats are just part of gaming culture</a>.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/reasons-you-were-not-promoted-that-are-totally-unrelated-to-gender">This is the very definition of lolsob&nbsp;</a>. So is <a href="http://annfriedman.com/post/109333436743/it-also-makes-money-every-media-company-knows">this</a>.<br /><br />Back in December, Anil Dash wrote <a href="http://dashes.com/anil/2014/12/circles.html">an excellent post about having his identity erased- literally</a>.<br /><br />I really loved this post <a href="http://katedaviesdesigns.com/2015/01/28/five-years-on-part-1/">looking back five years after leaving academia</a>.<br /><br />What <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/lorynbrantz/if-disney-princesses-had-realistic-hair#.fdGyXnx0dR">Disney princesses would look like if they had realistic hair</a>. Or <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/30/disney-princess-real-waistline_n_6076634.html">realistic waistlines</a>. A lot of people wave away the problem of unrealistic representations of women and say that girls (and women) are smart enough to know what is fantasy and what is real. And yes, we are... but I've recently realized that I have a skewed image in my head of "healthy weight." In fact, I don't really know what a healthy weight looks like. That makes me sad.<br /><br />Finally, I've been busy setting up a <a href="http://mrnelsonbooks.com/">website for my children's books</a>. Check it out! I sort of enjoy setting up websites, so this was a fun task. Except for the bit where I couldn't figure out why my blog carousel wasn't displaying. That's resolved now, and all is good. I'll be posting about the books my kids and I have read and liked. I'll probably post once a month or so, and I've also set up a newsletter so you can <a href="http://mrnelsonbooks.com/newsletter/">subscribe if you want to get my monthly pick in your inbox</a>. (And don't forget- if you'd like my recommendations for short ebooks in your inbox once a week, you can <a href="http://tungstenhippo.com/content/mailing-list">subscribe to the Tungsten Hippo Weekly Digest</a>- once I got the PO box so that I can safely send email newsletters, I saw no reason to restrain myself!)<br /><br />That's it for now. Happy weekend everyone!Cloudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09317847285050447789noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29235839.post-29441196987130136612015-01-27T21:56:00.000-08:002015-01-27T21:56:20.014-08:00My Twitter RulesFor some reason, I'm really itching to write a post tonight. But the post I had queued up to write next is beyond my mental capabilities tonight. After several weeks of waiting for things I'd set in motion to come to fruition... everything hit at once! Also, my main client has some extra work for me right now, and I'm a fan of money so I've been working slightly longer hours for them. Put this all together, and I've been very busy and I'm feeling a bit drained.<br /><br />So, instead let's talk about Twitter! Specifically, let's talk about how to keep Twitter fun. I've evolved the following set of rules, some of which I follow better than others.<br /><br />This list is written in the second person, but should be read as me talking to myself- because these are my rules for <i>me</i>. I'm sure the balance between engagement and happiness is different for other people.<br /><br /><b>1. Only follow people whose tweets add something to your life.</b><br /><br />Since one of the things I use Twitter for is to diversify the opinions I find, not all of the people I follow have tweets that make me happy- but they all add something I value.<br /><br /><b>2. If you're following someone and they start to annoy you more than the value they bring... unfollow. (Silently, of course.)</b><br /><br />I used to worry about offending someone by unfollowing, but... people who get in a snit about people unfollowing them on Twitter aren't the type of people you want to know, anyway.<br /><br />Seriously, different people use social media in different ways. Some people use it almost exclusively to vent, which is FINE and sometimes really amusing. But if their venting starts to annoy me, I just unfollow. It is their Twitter stream, they can say whatever they want. And it is my Twitter timeline, I can listen to whatever I want.<br /><br />Some people tweet really interesting things, but at a volume that overwhelms me. So I unfollow and (maybe) add them to a list to check in on from time to time, instead.<br /><br />I will never, ever tweet at someone and tell them why I'm unfollowing me, because seriously, why would they care?<br /><br />The corollary of this is that I pay zero attention to who unfollows me.<br /><br /><b>3. It is cool to follow famous people, but don't talk to them too much.</b><br /><br />It almost never makes me happy to tweet at a famous person. I'm just not that secure in my own cleverness. Sometimes, I can't help myself and I do it anyway. I'd be happier overall if I wouldn't.<br /><br /><b>4. Don't try to ask that super smart person with a lot of followers a specific question about the controversial topic of the day.</b><br /><br />This one took me awhile to work out, because I only ever asked genuine questions but it rarely left me feeling good. Eventually I realized that the person with a gazillion followers gets a bunch of "questions" about the hot topic, only a small number of which are actually questions... and of course they can't tell that I'm being curious and trying to learn and not being an asshole.<br /><br />Also, even if they can tell I'm being curious and trying to learn... damn, they get a lot of questions. They don't have time to answer everyone.<br /><br />Yeah, this is sort of obvious in retrospect. I am not always brilliant.<br /><br />Anyway, now I listen when the Twitter famous smart people tweet, because they will say smart things. But I accept that I just have to listen to the statements that they choose to make, and if a statement sparks a question I can use it as a prompt to do some independent study if I want, but I should resist the urge to tweet back a question.<br /><br />(This, incidentally, does not apply to me, because I am not Twitter famous and have a small number of followers. You can tweet questions at me anytime!)<br /><br /><b>5. Avoid drama</b><br /><br />I tend to not get into protracted Twitter fights. The few times one has started to develop, I've just said we'll agree to disagree and then unfollowed. I haven't had to then go on to block or mute, but I would if needed. I don't like drama, and drama with strangers on the internet seems particularly pointless to me. I will discuss things, even for a long time. But if the discussion starts to evolve into a fight... I'm out. I use Twitter for fun and to learn. Fights are no fun, and not very conducive to the sort of dialogue that helps me learn.<br /><br /><b>6. Don't worry if you miss something.</b><br /><br />I used to follow a small number of people and I could read basically every tweet. I decided I wanted to follow more people, so I had to let that go. Adding lists helped with this.<br /><br />Those are the rules I try to follow on Twitter. Do you have any rules you follow? Share in the comments!Cloudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09317847285050447789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29235839.post-10394534554982049302015-01-23T17:46:00.003-08:002015-01-23T18:34:49.335-08:00Weekend Reading: The Stories We Tell EditionThis as been an interesting week. On Monday, I started to suspect that the sore throat I'd had for awhile might not just be allergies, and on Tuesday, I was sure I was I was sick. I figured I was probably too late to have zinc lozenges do much good, but I used them anyway... and woo hoo! I was only really sick for Tuesday. Now, I wasn't all that great on Wednesday, was probably operating at 75% yesterday, and didn't have the lung capacity for a run today. But still. The fact that I didn't spend several days sacked out on the sofa feeling miserable is a minor miracle.<br /><br />(I take Cold-Eeze zinc lozenges, and have use them to fend off colds with reasonable success since graduate school. There is some so-so scientific evidence supporting the use of zinc, but I would still classify this as "hey, it might be a placebo effect, but I'm not complaining!" If you do use zinc lozenges, make sure you get ones that do not also contain vitamin C, since ascorbic acid chelates zinc and inhibits its absorption. You also don't want to have fruit juice immediately before or after using the lozenges. And that is the end of my somewhat suspect medical beliefs spiel for the day.)<br /><br />Anyway, I do have some links for you. Here they are!<br /><br />First up, a bunch of stories about women in tech.<br /><br />There has been a very disturbing set of events recently, in which Shanley Kane (a prominent activist for diversity in tech, perhaps best known as a founder of Model View Culture) came under attack from weev, GamerGaters and their ilk. I believe the precipitating event was her speaking out against some remarks Linus Torvalds (the founder of Linux) made about diversity and not being nice... and I'm going to summarize it poorly, so you can read this excellent post about <a href="http://www.curiousefficiency.org/posts/2015/01/abuse-is-not-ok.html">why abuse in an open source community is not OK</a>, which includes the background at the top.<br /><br />Anyway, people started voicing their support for Shanley Kane, often while acknowledging that she has a style that many people find difficult. I don't want to go into the entire history of this here, but Kane's tone and style are direct and confrontational. It is not a style I would be comfortable with, and frankly, it is not a style I would want to associate with, even when I agree with the content of her comments. However, there is a case to be made that she has managed to make progress and draw attention to issues where those of us with more agreeable styles have not. One of the best comments I've seen on that came from @leeflower's tweets, where she observed that Shanley has moved the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window">Overton Window</a> for the rest of us.<br /><br />But then <a href="http://blog.ameliagreenhall.com/post/what-it-was-like-to-co-found-model-view-culture-with-shanley-kane">Amelia Greenhall posted about her role as a co-founder of Model View Culture, and why she left</a>.<br /><br />I've been impressed with the nuanced reactions and apologies from some of the people who were prominent voices in the original discussion. See for instance <a href="http://www.flowerhorne.com/blog/2015/1/20/the-trouble-with-heroes">@leeflower's post</a> and also <a href="http://betsyhaibel.com/blog/2015-01-21-an-apology-and-eight-other-things/">Betsy Haibel's post</a>.<br /><br />I agree with them. The abuse Shanley Kane is receiving is wrong. Amelia Greenhall's treatment is also wrong. Model View Culture publishes some wonderful writing on diversity in tech. I struggle with whether to support it in light of these revelations. On on hand, Shanley Kane is just a human, and humans make mistakes and have baggage and sometimes that baggage makes them perpetuate abuse they have received. On the other hand, I haven't ever seen much evidence that Shanley Kane is willing to listen to criticism and learn and grow from it. Perhaps she is. I am a spectator of these events from very, very far away. But I don't think anyone should get a free pass for being horrible to other people, no matter the reason or the background. There is a difference between being willing to be confrontational towards systemic issues and the people who stand in the way of fixing them and being an asshole. I have no idea which side of the line Shanley Kane is on. I am undecided on whether it matters.<br /><br />So, back to the actual issues facing women in technology, eh? Here is <a href="http://www.ncwit.org/sites/default/files/legacy/pdf/NCWIT_TheFacts_rev2010.pdf">a report with some statistics on the fate of women in technology</a>. Page 16 has a particularly interesting breakdown of the mid-career quit rate for women, by sector of the industry. This <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-leadership/wp/2015/01/20/the-women-who-make-it-in-tech/">post from Kieran Snyder provides some details about the women who stay</a>.<br /><br />Speaking of women who stay in tech, the <a href="http://www.fastcompany.com/3041106/most-creative-people/the-women-leaders-driving-lyfts-impressive-growth">executive team of Lyft</a> certainly seems nicer than the Uber executives who were in the new recently. That doesn't solve the labor-related issues, of course.<br /><br />The <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2015/01/21/bjork_pitchfork_interview_she_s_tired_of_not_getting_credit_for_her_music.html">issues women in music face</a> sound pretty familiar....<br /><br /><a href="http://alicedreger.com/why_once_more">Alice Dreger writes about what women are allowed to say</a>, and relates that to her upcoming book, Galileo's Middle Finger (which looks really interesting). look like an interesting<br /><br />Moving on to other topics...<br /><br />You may have heard about an upcoming movies about the high school kids who beat MIT in a robotics competition. <a href="http://www.azcentral.com/story/life/az-narratives/2014/07/17/phoenix-high-school-win-mit-resonates-decade-later/12777467/">Here's the story of what happened next</a>, which isn't quite so feel good as the press buzz about the movies might lead you to believe. The cost of not fixing our immigration policy is high. <i>(Edit: I haven't seen either the documentary or the George Lopez movie, so I have no idea if the movies themselves show audiences what happened after the competition. I've edited this passage because it unfairly implied that the movies do not show this part of the story.)</i><br /><br />You may also have heard about the movie Selma, and seen some controversy about whether or not it was "fair" to Lyndon B. Johnson. <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/news/amy-davidson/selma-fair-l-b-j">Amy Davidson has a wonderful take down of that argument</a>.<br /><br /><a href="http://jezebel.com/when-the-opera-acts-like-its-never-seen-a-black-person-1680149691">This makes me angry</a>. The fact that it happened during Aida is just too much.<br /><br />The <a href="https://annamirer.wordpress.com/2015/01/23/lets-talk-about-intentional-weight-loss-and-evidence-based-medicine/">problem with weight loss as medical advice</a>. Pair that with this report on how <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/health-30812439">inactivity is more harmful than obesity</a>. One of my Twitter friends decided that this year she was focusing on exercise and eating what she wants. I think she's on to something.<br /><br />When I decided to start a newsletter, I subscribed to a few to see how other people run theirs. One of the ones I've been really enjoying is the <a href="http://tinyletter.com/jenmyers">one run by Jen Myers</a>. Each installment has a story, which she also archives on their own site. I really like <a href="http://thereportmargins.com/on-origin-stories.html">today's story, which is about our own origin stories</a>.<br /><br />Speaking of newsletters... did you know that you can now get a Tungsten Hippo newsletter? It is a weekly digest of the content I post (usually one or two book recommendations and a quote, sometimes a blog post) plus a random bonus recommendation selected from the archives. I'm having a lot of fun revisiting my archives this way! <a href="http://tungstenhippo.com/content/mailing-list">Sign up here</a>.<br /><br />This is <a href="https://medium.com/human-parts/you-have-plenty-of-time-to-love-them-later-1a553d2e9dc8">a nice post about early motherhood</a>. I didn't follow the rule of "make no major life decisions in the first year," but I did have a rule that I couldn't make any without contriving to get a night or two of really good sleep first.<br /><br />And now, for the happy ending:<br /><br />I <a href="http://gizmodo.com/loch-ness-kitchen-sightings-are-about-to-skyrocket-than-1680723173">want one of these</a>.<br /><div><br /></div>I laughed so hard:<br /><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">Woah! This just happened on my twitter feed, took my brain ages to work out it wasn't intentional <a href="http://t.co/PmMWK58BxI">pic.twitter.com/PmMWK58BxI</a><br />— Elizabeth Gardiner (@libwella) <a href="https://twitter.com/libwella/status/558187974782107648">January 22, 2015</a></blockquote><br /><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>Cloudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09317847285050447789noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29235839.post-20545313312028295992015-01-21T09:55:00.000-08:002015-01-21T09:56:15.925-08:00This Is Not AdviceThe discussions that led to <a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2015/01/becoming-me-part-i.html">my last post</a> and the discussions that followed it kept skirting the issues of who should go to graduate school and whether there should be fewer graduate students. That made me uncomfortable, because I sure as hell don't know the answers to those questions.<br /><br />So let me get this out of the way right up front: <b>if you are wondering "should I go to graduate school?" my answer is "I don't know."</b> Furthermore, I'd say no one else knows, either. If I had a larger point in my last post (which is debatable) it is this: graduate school can mean different things to different people. No one can write any universal rules about whether you should or shouldn't go.<br /><br />However, no one can write universal rules about what you should do&nbsp;<i>after</i>&nbsp;getting a PhD, either. I am firmly in favor of a true expansion of our thinking about what people "should" do after they get a PhD and what "success" looks like, but that does not mean I think everyone currently doing multiple postdoctoral fellowships or working as an adjunct as they try to get a tenure track position is doing the wrong thing. What is "right" and what is "wrong" is a very individual decision, and no one can make it for someone else.<br /><br />Similarly, I don't know if programs should be trying to shrink right now. I know that I'm generally in favor of high but transparent standards; honest disclosure of what a graduate program will cost in terms of time, effort, and money; and gathering and sharing information about the job prospects of people graduating from the program.<br /><br />I am very, very uncomfortable about the idea that some group of people is going to accurately decide what is best for some other group of people, unless those groups are "parents" and "infants." Really, go read that <a href="http://tressiemc.com/2013/04/05/blanket-dont-go-to-graduate-school-advice-ignores-race-and-reality/">Tressie McMillan Cottom post I linked to in my last post</a>, if you haven't already. Who among us really has the breadth of knowledge to decide what is right for everyone else? I certainly won't claim that I can look past my own privilege and make such a pronouncement in any sort of universal manner.<br /><br />When I think about professions that limit the number of practitioners by limiting spots in training programs, I think about medicine. I can see a "public good" case for stringent standards for medical training programs and for strict licensing requirements. I don't see a similar case for PhDs. I'll go further and say that I don't really see the harm <i>to society</i> from having more members who have PhDs, even PhDs from programs of varying quality, regardless of how those people are making their money.<br /><br />I can see a case for harm coming to an individual from investing time and perhaps money into a PhD that results in poor career prospects... but is that what is happening? I don't know. I see a lot of examples of people who are realizing that the career path they hoped to get on is mighty crowded, and are having to make tough decisions about how long to stay in the jobs in the early parts of that path. I am not unsympathetic to this problem. It sucks. Career angst is absolutely no fun. But this does not seem unique to PhDs. Are there other career paths that are well-paved and easy to navigate, leading to wonderful, well-paid jobs for all who want them, and with frolicking unicorns holding up encouraging signs as you traverse them? If so, by all means... get on those paths!<br /><br />I don't think such paths exist. I'm sorry. That sucks. I know.<br /><br />My honest opinion of what I would do if I were a postdoc or adjunct and thought that my situation sucked is to stop being a postdoc or an adjunct and go do something else. Based on what I've done when I've found myself in other sucky work situations, I think I'd moan about the suckiness of it all for awhile, but then I'd embark on the difficult work of figuring out what other career paths might appeal to me and make a change. Sure, there are likely systemic changes needed in how both scientific research and undergraduate education are staffed, but I would not want to spend my life in misery waiting for those changes to happen. Neither institution is noted for being quick to change, after all.<br /><br />I said I wasn't going to give advice and that is straying dangerously close to advice, so let me be clear: that's just me. I have never viewed a tenure track position as a uniquely desirable prize, and I have never had a life long dream to do anything.<br /><div><br /></div>One thing I learned in my own forays into career angst is that the acceptable ways out of said angst are very personal- what looks like a great solution to one person will look like a fate worse than death to someone else. The only universal thing is that you have to be honest about the situation to have any hope of finding a good path forward. Wishing that the world was different than it is won't do any good. If you're up for fighting to make the world different, more power to you. Otherwise, you just have to accept the suckiness and figure out your next move.<br /><br />Oops. That is sounding a lot like advice again. But I think I'll stick with that one: you really do have to make an honest assessment of the situation if you want to have a good chance of figuring out what you should do next.<br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vO2h3Au45vU/VL_mVda2w1I/AAAAAAAACiI/KABkTkB75Co/s1600/warning_sign.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vO2h3Au45vU/VL_mVda2w1I/AAAAAAAACiI/KABkTkB75Co/s1600/warning_sign.jpg" height="278" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Not all warning signs are this unambiguous.</td></tr></tbody></table><br />One other thing I feel comfortable saying: if that honest assessment leads you to determine that you made some poor decisions in the past or ignored warning signs and stayed on one path too long: let it go. Examine it only as much as necessary to make better decisions in the future, and then accept that the past is the past and evaluate your options in the present. Flagellating yourself over past decisions will not help you get to a happier place. You know more now than you did then, so apply that knowledge and figure out what you want to do next.<br /><br />My last post was a personal story about the role the PhD played in my life. I got several responses that a person could gain confidence and master self-directed learning in other ways. That is true. But <i>I </i>gained my confidence and mastered self-directed learning through doing a PhD.<br /><br />My story doesn't mean that I think getting a PhD is a great decision for everyone. I think that getting a PhD was a great decision <i>for me</i>. But let's look at the whole story.<br /><br />I graduated from college in 1994. We were still coming out of a recession. It wasn't as bad as the recent one, but the economy still wasn't great. There were jobs for recent graduates, but they weren't as plentiful as they were five years later when the dotcom boom was booming.<br /><br />I had a degree in biochemistry. I had worked as a lab technician in college and knew that was not a good long term career plan for me. I wasn't sure what my other options were. Maybe I could become a high school teacher? But I have a lot of teachers in my family and had absolutely zero illusions about how easy or well-compensated such a choice would be. I could go a completely different direction- but for all the reasons outlined in my last post, I didn't have a wide view of the options available.<br /><br />Or I could go to graduate school. I had several competing offers from which to choose, all from really good programs. I had applied for and won an NSF fellowship, which at some of the programs meant that I would get an increased stipend.<br /><br />I was living in Chicago. I liked the city. In fact, I loved Chicago, but I was tired of the cold winters. Several graduate programs in California had accepted me, including one that was offering to bump my stipend up to $18,000/year, thanks to the NSF fellowship.<br /><br />My friends who were starting entry level positions were getting offers in the $20,000 - $25,000/year range. A bunch of my friends had no offers at all.<br /><br />Getting paid $18,000 per year to go to graduate school in California sounded like a good deal to me.<br /><br />I tried to pick a good, healthy program. I ruled out one where one of the professors I interviewed with said "Oh, you're from Chicago, so you're used to the idea that you work all seven days of the week." I also tried to pick a good adviser and a good thesis topic. But in fact, I mostly just got lucky and landed in a quality program and with an adviser who was not a giant asshole, working on a really interesting- but doable- project.<br /><br />Even given that luck, there was a time when I considered quitting. It was in my third year, which I consider the darkest year- I was so far in that I couldn't see the light from where I entered the tunnel, but not far enough along to see the light at the end of the tunnel, either. But I did not have an abusive adviser and I wasn't actually miserable. I can't remember what swayed me to stay, it might have been something as embarrassing as not wanting to rock the boat in the relationship I was in, which I thought was going to last (it didn't). I don't know. But I stayed, and I finished.<br /><br />My timing in exiting graduate school was far, far better than my timing in exiting college. I came out with a PhD and experience working with databases just as this new field of "bioinformatics"&nbsp;was exploding. I had a choice between a&nbsp;postdoc paying about $25k/year and a job at a biotech start up that paid $50k/year. I agonized over that choice for a laughable amount of time, in retrospect. I never had a strong desire to become a professor, and turning down that much extra money to continue on the professorial path was never going to happen, particularly since everyone told me that I could never be a professor working on the things I was most interested in (which was scientific data management... yes, I am aware they were all wrong).<br /><br />The path since then has not been all sunshine and roses, but it has only rarely really sucked, and when it has sucked, I have (eventually) changed course. It wasn't always easy to figure out when to change course when things didn't suck but weren't really great. I've used a career coach twice, and found that very helpful in clarifying what I wanted out of my work life. And I've done a lot of navel-gazing.<br /><br />So, that's another personal story. I am not arrogant enough to try to give universal advice, but I can tell you where I think I would have chosen differently if the situation had been different.<br /><br />I don't think I would have gone to graduate school if it weren't a paid gig. It seems even less likely that I would have gone into serious debt to go to graduate school.<br /><br />I doubt I would have persisted in graduate school if I had an abusive adviser. I base this on the fact that I have recognized other abusive work situations and (eventually) gotten the heck out. I cannot think of any career reward I think is worth tolerating abuse to secure.<br /><br />If I had a strong desire to become a professor, I might have taken the postdoc over the start up job. Given the odds, I probably would not have gotten a job as a professor, or if I did get one, it probably would have been in a geographic location I did not find desirable. I have no idea how many postdocs I'd have done as I tried to land a tenure track position. Given my decision making processes in other cases, I suspect it would have been strongly influenced by how much I enjoyed the postdocs. I do not know if I would have been willing to move to a place I did not like just to be a professor. I can tell you that I would not move to a place a do not like to take any job now. There is no amount of job satisfaction that can overcome living conditions suckitude <i>for me</i>.<br /><br />But those considerations are all very much driven by the type of person I am, and what makes me happy. No one can tell you what the right answer to any career choice is, because no one knows what is most important to you. A good career coach can help you find the answers, but in the end, they come from within you.<br /><br />Yeah, I know. That sucks, too. But I found that doing the work to figure out what really mattered to me was fairly transformative in terms of my vision for what my life could be. Maybe you will, too. Good luck!Cloudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09317847285050447789noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29235839.post-32766080673521750672015-01-18T15:00:00.001-08:002015-01-18T19:11:14.718-08:00Becoming Me, Part II had a conversation on Twitter this morning about the purpose of a PhD. It made me think again about the role that graduate school and my PhD have played in my life. <a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2012/07/dont-be-afraid-of-plan-c.html">I've touched on this before</a>, but my thoughts also fit into the thoughts I've been having lately about how I feel like I'm finally becoming <i>me </i>and not a hybrid of myself and who I think I'm supposed to be. Therefore, I'm going to explore it more fully, as part of a series of extremely navel-gazey posts about how I got to this pretty nice place in my life where I've figured out what really matters to me and have the opportunity to try to live a life that optimizes that.<br /><br />Here's the tweet that started the conversation- you can expand it (I think) to see the whole discussion.<br /><br /><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" lang="en">Confidence &amp; ability to teach self whatever I needed that I gained doing PhD have been more important in my career than any specific skills.<br />— Wandering Scientist (@wandsci) <a href="https://twitter.com/wandsci/status/556855578069200898">January 18, 2015</a></blockquote><br /><br /><br />To understand why I say that the most useful things about getting a PhD were confidence and the ability to teach myself whatever I needed, you have to understand who I used to be.<br /><br />I grew up in a what I'd call a lower middle class neighborhood. I thought I could use zip code demographics to demonstrate this, but zip codes are too broad, I think- my childhood zip code has a median income of $38,204 and my current zip code has a median income of $40,642. However, anyone who has visited my current neighborhood and my childhood neighborhood would surely say that the one I live in now is far wealthier. I guess I'm in the wealthy part of my zip code. So you're just going to have to take my word for this. By <a href="http://money.usnews.com/money/personal-finance/articles/2014/04/24/what-it-means-to-be-middle-class-today">Robert Reich's proposed definition of the middle class</a>, both my childhood zip code and my current zip code could be called "lower middle class," but single family homes in my neighborhood start at about $500,000, whereas some homes in my childhood neighborhood can still be purchased for less than $100,000.<br /><br />Anyway, that's not all that important. Suffice to say that I grew up in an area and went to schools that my current peers would code as "rough." I had some wonderful teachers and generally think I got a decent education, but the difference between my education and the education of someone in an upper middle class neighborhood (not to mention someone who went to a private prep school) became painfully clear to me when I got to college. I went to the University of Chicago. I almost transferred out after my first quarter, because I felt impossibly behind my classmates. I credit two things with keeping me there: (1) a friend- who was dealing with far more difficult issues than I was- went to the campus counseling center and found it helpful, so I decided to try that, too, and (2) my first year boyfriend (who grew up in the Chicago area) had issues with his family and couldn't invite me home with him for Thanksgiving. I was stuck in a mostly empty dorm over the long weekend and didn't have anything to do except study... and I downright aced my next chemistry exam.<br /><br />It is obviously more complicated than that. I was in the honors chemistry class because I had tested into it. I was at the U of C on a full scholarship, awarded on merit. I felt like I was struggling, but in reality, I was on track to get Bs and Cs at the worst. I was not failing, not by a long shot. So I had plenty of evidence that I belonged, if I'd chosen to see it. But I didn't choose to see it, for reasons that largely traced back to the expectations of women in the place where I grew up. Between the work with a counselor who was helping me understand the roots of my lack of confidence and the concrete demonstration that yes, I could succeed in my most difficult class, I pulled out of my funk and stayed at Chicago. I not only stayed, I flourished there, and went on to graduate with honors.<br /><br />So why was I so lacking in self-confidence? It is complicated, and in talking about this I don't want to imply that I place any blame on my family. In fact, when I count up all the ways I've gotten lucky in life, my family (encompassing both my immediate family and my extended family) is at the top of my list. I have wonderful, supportive, loving parents and a wonderful, supportive, loving group of aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents. I have never in my life felt like I'd be without some place to go if I needed help, and I am smart enough to know how much that means.<br /><br />My parents were both the first generation in their families to go to college, and I was the first person in my extended family to get a PhD. (In fact, I think I am still the only PhD in the family.) I grew up in an atmosphere that encouraged me to follow my interests and gave me support in doing so- but my ideas of what my interests could be were somewhat limited by what I could see. <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/06/if-i-were-a-black-kid/276655/">Ta-Nehisi Coates has written brilliantly about how he didn't even know what to dream of when he was a kid</a>:<br /><br />"When you don't have much exposure to the world the options you see for yourself tend to be limited--you can't really dream about that which you don't know exists. "<br /><br />I am not comparing my background to Coates' background, not at all. But the core point he made applies to kids like I was, too. Your dreams cannot extend beyond what you know exists. My father was a librarian, so I naturally spent a lot of time in the library, and that undoubtedly expanded my horizons greatly. As a child, I wanted to be a carpenter, a country-western singer, a doctor, and an anthropologist. I didn't really know what that last one meant, but I loved learning about people and their cultures, and someone told me that is what anthropologists do.<br /><br />I didn't think I wanted to be a scientist, because my science classes in school were all about what would happen and not why- and I have always been drawn to the "why" questions. However, I'd liked chemistry enough to consider it a possible major (perhaps I thought I'd become a high school science teacher? I'm not really sure what I was thinking when I considered chemistry as a major but not a career.) I was in that honors chemistry class because my chemistry teachers had been better than the others at giving me an inkling that science could answer some "why"questions, and because my high school chemistry teacher had advised me that I should take any honors classes I tested into, and I took his advice.<br /><br />I think the environment in which I grew up had an even more profound impact on me than just influencing what I saw as possible career paths, though. I think it taught me a way of being that crippled my self-confidence and gave me a false impression of how I was supposed to be. It took me years to really recognize the extent to which the broader environment in which I went to school affected me.<br /><br />In my home, girls could do anything and women's equality was assumed. In my school, some of my friends joked that calculus was useless to them, since it wasn't useful in the kitchen. One boy asked me if I was going to that "fancy" college to meet a rich husband. One of the mothers volunteering in the school told me that women who have careers are denying their true nature as women, which was to have and care for as many children as possible.<br /><br />I had my butt grabbed at school so often that I can't differentiate the experiences into any distinct occasions. I do remember the boy who sat in front of me in one of my classes, who would reach back and run his hand along my leg anytime I wore a skirt, saying he was checking to see if I'd shaved. I do not know why I never thought to complain to the teachers about this treatment. I think I just thought it was how things were, and nothing that I could expect to change.<br /><br />I was a vocal feminist, within my limited understanding of what that meant, and I took a fair amount of teasing from a couple of guys for it. I heard so many dumb blonde jokes that years later I shocked someone on a graduate school interview visit by rattling off twenty or thirty of them without needing to stop to think. But I was not bullied, and I was actually reasonably happy in high school. I never realized how many toxic assumptions about what it means to be a woman I was absorbing. I started to understand as I sat in the office of the counselor I saw in college, and struggled to answer her when she asked why I thought I should not voice pride in my own accomplishments, why I thought I wasn't smart enough to major in chemistry, and why I felt like I had to keep giving a boyfriend who tended to belittle me second, third, and fourth chances.<br /><br />That counselor and some good friends helped me get onto a healthier path, mentally. I started to take myself and my own aspirations more seriously. As my success in my courses continued to grow, I started to feel more confident in my capabilities. I started to learn how to speak up for myself and began to expect to be treated with more respect. I can think back to specific professors who nurtured that budding self-confidence, and went out of their way to encourage me. (They happened to primarily be men, because most of my professors were men- so men professors, let this encourage you to also encourage your women students. We may not always have the self-awareness to thank you at the time, but we will remember and be grateful to you.)<br /><br />I have often said that I think I <i>could </i>have gotten an equally good education at the state college near my home, and I stand by that. I do not think I <i>would </i>have gotten such a good education, though, because I do not think I would have had the self-confidence and the vision to seek it out. One advantage of a school like the University of Chicago is that the education is unavoidable. I did not need vision to seek it out- it was handed to me, I just had to accept it and do the work to absorb it. It was a place that pushed me to take my intellectual self seriously. In fact, given its rigorous distribution requirements, it practically forced me to take my intellectual self seriously. I consider myself very fortunate to have gone there, not because I think it is a uniquely excellent place or that I got a uniquely excellent education there, but because it propelled me along a path of intellectual growth and forced me to confront and work on my self-confidence issues and start to take myself seriously.<br /><br />But the work was not complete by the time I graduated from college. Perhaps it would have been if I had started from a different place, I don't know. I do know that in a very real way, going to graduate school helped me grow into the reasonably confident woman I am today. The experiences of persisting through the inevitable research setbacks, of having and pursuing my own research ideas, of figuring out how to learn the things I needed to know that my adviser did not know, of being a world expert in something (albeit a small something of interest to a handful of people)... these experiences were invaluable to someone like me, who had once struggled to consider herself worthy of intellectual respect.<br /><br />I went from my PhD directly into a job in a biotech company, and have continued to grow and learn along my career path. I graduated with a PhD and a far stronger sense of my capabilities, but I still had insecurities- and I still have insecurities today. I don't think you ever lose them, you just learn how to work around them. More importantly I still had an incomplete view of the possibilities for my life, and I was still operating within other people's ideas of what I "should" do. Learning to see that and figuring out how to get past that has taken another 15 years, and that is a topic for another post.<br /><br />I'll close this post with the hope that it has helped explain why I am uncomfortable with the calls I sometimes see to limit the number of graduate students because of the lack of jobs on the other side. I understand the impulse, but I worry that doing so will close off opportunities to people who can benefit from them, and that this will disproportionately affect people who are starting from less privileged places. Tressie McMillan Cottom has written about how <a href="http://tressiemc.com/2013/04/05/blanket-dont-go-to-graduate-school-advice-ignores-race-and-reality/">credentials like a PhD have different impacts for different types of students</a>. I am not in the categories she discusses, and I am aware of the extent that I have benefited from the privileges I have- I'm white, I'm not a first generation college graduate, and I have a supportive family. But I also feel like the PhD provided benefits for me beyond those that people usually discuss. It happens that my specific career path was made possible because of my PhD- my first job and at least one job since required a PhD. But even if none of the jobs I had ever held had actually required a PhD, I would think the PhD was worth the five years it took me to get it. I do not think I would have had the confidence to place myself on this career path without having first done a PhD. <br /><br />It is certainly true that a person could get to where I am today without a PhD, but I do not think <i>I </i>would have done so. I am sure I am not unique in this experience, and that is why I think we need to stop thinking of a PhD solely as job training, and start thinking of it as a valuable life experience, one of many different ways people can find their way to the path that is right for them.Cloudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09317847285050447789noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29235839.post-79589332090514316992015-01-16T19:30:00.000-08:002015-01-16T19:30:10.078-08:00Weekend Reading: Another Mishmash EditionFirst of all, thank you all for the sock and style blog recommendations! I'll be doing some blog browsing and possibly some sock buying this weekend.<br /><br />I spent a large chunk of my day working on slides for a talk I'm going to give about preparing your a job search. I don't mind making slides, per se, but I do have an interesting pattern of cleaning my desk when I have slides to make. And then I had to write a short bio of myself, something I hate doing beyond all proportion to how hard it actually is.<br /><br />So, what I'm saying is that my brain is pretty much checked out and you shouldn't expect much from the commentary around these links.<br /><br />But they are, as usual, awesome links!<br /><br />I really liked this post <a href="http://judgmentalobserver.com/2015/01/08/in-defense-of-academic-writing/">defending academic writing and the practice of taking the time to really study things</a>. I don't have a problem with the fact that scholarship advances the way it does- I do wish, though, that we could manage to get more of that wonderful scholarship presented as well in forums and formats from which the rest of us could absorb some new knowledge. When I said in <a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2014/11/calling-all-writers-current-and-future.html">my "I'm a publisher now" post</a> that I was interested in people's academic work, I was serious. However, I also understand that time is finite and that people will prioritize the things that keep them employed and their career advancing. I don't have a solution for that.<br /><br />I also really liked this NY Times column about <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/11/opinion/sunday/speaking-while-female.html?smid=tw-share&amp;_r=0">the hazards of speaking while female</a>. OK, "liked" might not be the right word. It resonated with me and my experiences.<br /><br />This week, I was thinking about my experiences of speaking while female, and also about the fact that it seems a lot of the guys in my field have a discussion style that veers towards incredulity when disagreeing with something I say- as in a style that makes me feel like they think that what I'm saying is the most asinine and/or stupid thing they have ever heard- but that these same guys (most of whom I actually really like) will often change their mind and agree with me if I just keep answering their objections.<br /><br />I'm not sure what to do with that. Mostly I press ahead and then come home and have a beer.<br /><br />Given that line of thought, this <a href="http://lareviewofbooks.org/essay/gender-blah-blah-blah">essay from Katherine Angel about the experience of writing while female</a> also resonated, even though she is discussing the literary world and I work in the tech world.<br />It is long, but worth your time. Here are some choice quotes:<br /><br />"Being underestimated — by men, by women, by themselves — is something most women have in common. We have to work harder from the outset to resist being dismissed, to attain equal footing, and then to maintain it. It’s endless, repetitive work, cut across and intensified by yet other assumptions based on accent, skin color, class, education, dress."<br /><br />and<br /><br />"Not being responsible for the inequality out there in the world doesn't mean one shouldn't try to chip away at it."<br /><br />and<br /><br />"The visibility and status of women’s writing is important precisely because of a web of marginalization across all areas of life. "<br /><br />On a similar subject, here's a hilarious list of <a href="http://the-toast.net/2015/01/13/interview-woman-writer/">instructions for interviewing a woman writer</a>.<br /><br />Again, not sure what to do with all of this. I suspect the only thing I can do is have another beer and wait for more guys to have daughters. Here is <a href="http://www.itinthed.com/16328/what-taking-my-daughter-to-a-comic-book-store-taught-me/">a better than average example of the tech guy who has a daughter and suddenly starts to get it essay</a>. I guess I'll take the more enlightened men no matter how we get them. But one thing I'd like to ask all the men who write these essays is why it takes having a daughter to see the problem. Why can't they listen to their wives- whom they presumably love and respect- or grow some empathy and read an essay like one of the two linked above and really get it? Why do they need a daughter to really observe this dynamic?<br /><br />I guess that will remain one of the mysteries of our age.<br /><br />Speaking of things that make me grumpy, have you heard about <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/tarahaelle/2015/01/13/disneyland-measles-outbreak-it-is-indeed-a-small-world-after-all/">the measles outbreak we're having</a>?<br /><br />On a much less clear cut health topic, here is a <a href="http://www.psmag.com/navigation/health-and-behavior/lovely-wife-psych-ward-95567/#.VLXGNv56m4o.twitter">really good essay from a man whose wife has episodes of serious mental illness</a>.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/global/2015/jan/16/selma-through-my-fathers-eyes-what-did-these-people-die-for?view=mobile">Heather Barmore's essay about seeing Selma with her father</a> is also really, really good.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.vox.com/2015/1/14/7541095/charlie-hebdo-muslims-threats">Vox reports on the threats they received in the aftermath of their Charlie Hebdo reporting</a>. Spoiler: the threats mostly weren't from Muslims upset about the cartoons.<br /><br />Ta-Nehisi Coates happens to be in Paris, and <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/01/i-might-be-charlie-hebdo-paris/384501/">has written some initial thoughts on recent events</a>. I look forward to reading his further thoughts.<br /><br />I have been struck by how little attention has been paid in the press I see to the four Jewish men killed in the supermarket. They are included in <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-30724678">the BBC's obituaries</a>. I have also been struck by the way people seem to want to overlook the very real threat that Jews in France feel from the radical Islamists in their country. It was only a couple of years ago that there was a horrific attack on a Jewish school, and I read somewhere (that I cannot find now) that many Jewish parents believe that Amedy Coulibaly (the man who later attacked the supermarket) was heading for a Jewish school when a traffic incident diverted him and he killed a policewoman instead. Whether that is true or not, the fact that they believe it to be true says a lot.<br /><br />I think we struggle with the messy realities of this situation.<br /><br />As usual, I don't want to end on such heavy topics, so here are some fun things:<br /><br />This imagining of <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/danieldalton/boss-witch#.tpmw6ZjLzx">Harry Potter retold as a story about Hermione</a> is full of spoilers and swear words, but a lot of fun.<br /><br />This <a href="http://recode.net/2014/12/16/onlyinsiliconvalley-local-school-puts-on-codecracker-video/">middle school dance performance</a> is pretty cool. Watch at least through the dance version of bubble sort, about half way through.<br /><br />Here are some <a href="http://www.boredpanda.com/ancient-tree-photography-beth-moon/">beautiful pictures of ancient trees</a>.<br /><div><br /></div>I've been to Boring. I think I'll have to try to visit Dull.<br /><br /><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">Best sign in Scotland. <a href="http://t.co/SNo6wZpsds">pic.twitter.com/SNo6wZpsds</a><br />— Keith Foster (@Keef76) <a href="https://twitter.com/Keef76/status/556161017768845312">January 16, 2015</a></blockquote><br /><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>Cloudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09317847285050447789noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29235839.post-91432500932377142752015-01-13T20:10:00.001-08:002015-01-13T20:10:11.890-08:00Socks, Bags, and Style BlogsI have a post I really want to write, about growing into who I am instead of who I think I should be. But I have a migraine. Or at least I think it is a migraine- my headache is pretty mild, but it is accompanied with nausea. Whatever it is, it is making it impossible to think through what I wanted to say.<br /><br />So I'm going to talk about socks and bags and style blogs instead. It seems more what I'm up for tonight.<br /><br />First up socks.<br /><br />When Mr. Snarky first came to America, he complained a lot about socks. Specifically, he complained about how he could not find any socks as good as the socks he bought in New Zealand. I rolled my eyes and told him I was sure our American socks were fine and he just needed to look around to find the brand that suited him.<br /><br />I am now ready to admit that I owe him an apology. <br /><br />I first started to suspect he might be right back in 2004, when we took a trip to Vancouver to get Mr. Snarky's visa renewed. It was colder than I expected, so I went to a Roots store near our hotel and bought a fleece and some socks. Those socks were AWESOME. I wore them for at least five years and mourned them when they finally wore out. I tried all sorts of stores to find American socks as good as those Roots socks. I failed. Eventually, I gave up and just resigned myself to socks that lasted a few months at best before either stretching out and bunching up in my shoes or having a hole sprout in the toe. I considered it a win to have found a brand of socks that at least stayed in place for a month or two.<br /><br />Then we went to New Zealand in 2013. Once again, it was cold, and once again, we went to a local store to get some supplies. This time it was Farmers, which is like a New Zealand version of JC Penny (sort of). I bought a three pack of lightweight wool socks and they are AWESOME. They are soft and warm and they stay in place and not a single one of them has sprouted a hole in the toe. They are my favorite socks and I wish I'd bought more of them. Once again, I find myself shopping around looking for socks that approach this level of awesomeness. NO JOY. Mostly, they sprout holes in the toe. One pair I bought seemed soft and warm and comfy... but had a hole in the toe after just three wearings. Other pairs bunch up.<br /><br />I am seriously considering asking my in laws to send me more socks, but it is sort of embarrassing to admit that I can't find any good socks in my own country.<br /><br />Next, bags.<br /><br />Back in 2003, I started a job that required some travel. I splurged and bought a really nice laptop bag. It converted from backpack to shoulder bag, had well-designed pockets, and was wonderful. I carried it for over ten years and loved it. Unfortunately, one of the pockets finally ripped out and I decided it was time to replace my beloved bag. I thought I'd just replace it with an update of the one I had, but the company that made it had gone out of business in one of the intervening recessions.<br /><br />I'd been casting about for a suitable replacement for a few months when I came across a review of <a href="https://www.loandsons.com/">Lo and Sons bags</a> (more on where I saw that review in a minute). I put "a new computer bag" on my Christmas wish list, along with a link to the bag I liked. Mr. Snarky took the "hint" and got me the new bag I wanted.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-I8RN3fEefco/VLXlqfYz5RI/AAAAAAAAChs/GtF61pVHu7o/s1600/bag.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-I8RN3fEefco/VLXlqfYz5RI/AAAAAAAAChs/GtF61pVHu7o/s1600/bag.jpg" height="223" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sleek, stylish, and really well designed</td></tr></tbody></table>I've been carrying it for a couple of weeks now, and it is pretty wonderful. The pockets are thoughtfully designed, the bag is comfortable to carry even with my not-so-slim client laptop in it, and it looks great.<br /><br />Finally, style blogs.<br /><br />I found the out about the Lo and Sons bag via <a href="http://corporette.com/2014/11/18/giveaway-lo-sons-2/">a giveaway</a> on a site called <a href="http://corporette.com/">Corprette</a>. I found that site because I was on a mission to find some sources of style inspiration. I realized that all of my ideas about style were formed when I was younger and thinner, and perhaps it was time for an update.<br /><br />Corprette is in general a little too formal for me, but I do get some ideas from it. I've also found a site called <a href="http://www.notdressedaslamb.com/">Not Dressed as Lamb</a> that looks really nice but so far hasn't really led to any style inspiration for me. I could use some more sites, I think. Anyone who knows of style bloggers that would make sense for a 40-something who generally dresses in something like business casual for work and is a size 12-14... tell me in the comments! I've also started pinning clothes ideas, but I haven't really figured out how to use Pinterest to find other ideas (beyond what their algorithm recommends for me), so I'd be happy for advice on that, too.<br /><br />And if you know of a brand of awesome socks that I can buy here in the US, I'll be forever in your debt.Cloudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09317847285050447789noreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29235839.post-9752189526041706662015-01-11T19:27:00.001-08:002015-01-11T19:27:57.918-08:00Ask Cloud: California Schoolin'I've got a new <a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/search/label/ask%20cloud">Ask Cloud question</a> from an anonymous reader we'll call "Moving to CA."<br /><br />----------------------<br /><br />I'm moving to an urban area in California. &nbsp;I don't have access to any information about school districts other than the official information online. &nbsp;I also know that there's a lottery in March and the "best" schools (and in-school programs) in each district fill up and get wait-lists at that point, and that living across the street from a district school in no way guarantees being able to go to that school... even though there's no busing. &nbsp;(This is all really bizarre to me.) &nbsp;On top of that, the district boundaries seem to have nothing to do with say, town boundaries. &nbsp;In fact, it looks like there are a lot of bizarrely cut up districts with all Great-school "9s" and "10s" in their district and some with only "2s" and "5s".<br /><br />We are trying to figure out where to live. &nbsp;We're moving well after the March lottery date and will probably end up at a local school that doesn't have a waitlist, preferably one in walking distance to wherever we end up.<br /><br />I've heard you say many times that your school is great even though it's known as "rough." &nbsp;My question for you: &nbsp;Is the school rated on Great Schools more in the "2" range or more in the "7" range? &nbsp;I notice that there are some districts where the "7s" are much more ethnically and racially diverse (minority-majority districts) than the 9s and 10s, and I wonder if that's the kind of school that's considered scary and rough by people with implicit biases. &nbsp;Essentially, I'm wondering if we should avoid the "2" schools at all costs (thus avoiding an entire district if it has a "2") or if they're likely ok too.<br /><div><br /></div><div>-------------------------</div><div><br /></div><div>This is a tough one. I don't know much about how Great Schools does its rankings. I looked up our school and it is an "8." I also skimmed <a href="http://www.greatschools.org/about/ratings.page">their rating methodology</a>, and it looks like in California it is almost exclusively on test scores, which are of course an incomplete metric at best. I think you'd be better off looking at the data directly from the state, particularly if you are inclined to do your own analysis. Up until 2013, the state testing here was called <a href="http://star.cde.ca.gov/">STAR</a>. Now it is the much less catchy&nbsp;<a href="http://caaspp.cde.ca.gov/">CAASPP</a>. Bad Mom Good Mom, whose child attends public school in the LA area, has some really good posts about interpreting the test results:</div><div><ul><li><a href="http://badmomgoodmom.blogspot.com/2011/04/what-star-tests-really-tell-us.html">What the STAR Tests Really Tell Us</a></li><li><a href="http://badmomgoodmom.blogspot.com/2011/05/more-thoughts-on-star-testing.html">More Thoughts on STAR Testing</a></li><li><a href="http://badmomgoodmom.blogspot.com/2013/08/star-test-scores-and-external-influences.html">STAR Test Scores and External Influences</a></li></ul></div><div>I don't have the patience to dig through the testing data as carefully as she does, but I also had the luxury of having the time to do onsite school visits, which you do not. Even if you don't want to crunch the numbers yourself, you should be able to get access to more data than the single rating Great Schools uses. For instance, you can get the Performance Level Reports for the various tested subjects, which shows you the breakdown of the scores. Here is a screenshot of the Math Performance Level Report for our school:</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VrucZsSqUoM/VK2ntGmT49I/AAAAAAAAChQ/Wr0PqSdaQNs/s1600/screenshot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VrucZsSqUoM/VK2ntGmT49I/AAAAAAAAChQ/Wr0PqSdaQNs/s1600/screenshot.jpg" height="216" width="400" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>You should also be able to get the School Accountability Reports. These are required for all public California schools (I think). According to my district's website, these reports cover:</div><div><div><ul><li>demographic information</li><li>school safety and climate for learning</li><li>academic data</li><li>class size</li><li>teacher and staff information</li><li>curriculum and instruction</li><li>fiscal and expenditure data</li></ul></div></div><div>Another option to keep in mind are charter schools. Charter schools in California&nbsp;don't tend to be the big corporate charter chains that are common in some other states. I don't know why. You can get&nbsp;<a href="http://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/cs/re/cefcharterschools.asp">information about charter schools in California from the state education department</a>. For your purposes, it is important to know that the lotteries for admission into charter schools are separate from the lotteries for placement in magnet schools (district run schools that pull students from a distributed area) or for school choice (wherein parents can try to "choice in" to a school that is not their neighborhood school).&nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div>The <a href="http://schools.latimes.com/">Los Angeles Times has a schools site</a>, which might be a convenient way to get a short list of schools to research further.&nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div>I wonder if you could get email answers to some questions from a short list of potential schools. You should be able to find out about GATE (Gifted and Talented) programs, for instance- different districts and even different schools within a district approach GATE instruction differently. We had no luck getting useful info about GATE programs when we were researching kindergartens, but that is because at that point no one knows which kids are likely to be considered GATE, and the school officials tend to assume that parents have an over-inflated opinion of their kids' genius. If your child is past the 2nd grade, though, you should be able to get them to take you seriously and answer questions. GATE programs start in 3rd grade here.&nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div>Another question that might be informative is to ask about music programs and other non-essential enrichment activities. The presence of these indicates resources and time to spend on things other than just the basics. I'd also ask about the PTA and any donation expectations. I've <a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2014/11/unanticipated-things-ive-learned-about.html">mentioned before that some of my friends at wealthier schools have rather high "recommended donations."</a> I recently heard of one school at which the people who did not make the recommended donation were publicly named. That sort of thing would make me furious, particularly if the kids heard about it. There are also some charter schools I know of for which the parents are required to donate a certain amount of time. That would also not work well for me.<br /><br />I'd also check vaccination rates. I just saw that <a href="http://www.sandiego6.com/news/local/9-people-contract-measles-after-visiting-Disney-Land--287834601.html">we're about to have another measles outbreak here in Southern California</a>. That makes me angry, but I'm not particularly worried about my kids this time, because they are vaccinated and they are at schools with relatively high rates of vaccinated kids. There's an "alternative" school here in which something like 50% of the kindergartners are not vaccinated. THAT would worry me.</div><div><br /></div><div>That's all I have. Readers, how would you evaluate schools from a distance? I'd be particularly interested to hear from readers in other urban areas of California. "Moving to CA" didn't indicate which urban area is of most interest, and I can obviously only speak from knowledge about San Diego.</div>Cloudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09317847285050447789noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29235839.post-9453718089221499332015-01-09T19:21:00.000-08:002015-01-10T14:34:02.750-08:00Weekend Reading: The Back with a Vengeance Edition After a couple of weeks of light posting due to vacation, this week's links post is back with a vengeance! I have a bunch of links for you this week.<br /><br />First of all, I want to say how saddened I am by the deaths of the hostages in the Kosher supermarket today. I <a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2015/01/mourning-with-nuance.html">wrote yesterday about the original attack on the Charlie Hebdo offices</a>, and I have some more links about the attacks in the comments of that post.<br /><br />But I want to talk about other things for the rest of this post. If you do not, click back to the other post and find links there.<br /><br />This long article on <a href="http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/01/senate-women-secret-history-113908.html#.VKwX-oo77CQ">women in the senate</a> is worth your time.<br /><br />Surprising exactly no one, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2015/01/08/men-on-the-internet-dont-believe-sexism-is-a-problem-in-science-even-when-they-see-evidence/?tid=sm_fb">men on the internet are not convinced by evidence that sexism is a problem in science</a>.<br /><br />You probably also won't be surprised by <a href="https://medium.com/@alicezielinski/things-people-say-when-youre-a-blonde-engineer-at-mit-b85df3d7970e?amp%3Butm_medium=social&amp;amp%3Butm_source=twitter.com&amp;amp%3Butm_campaign=buffer">the stupid things people say to a blonde engineer at MIT</a>. I'm sad that things don't seem to have improved much since my college days, where a line I got on some of the rare occasions that someone actually tried to pick me up was "what school do you go to? You're too pretty to go here." It never worked.<br /><br />Rose Eveleth has an interesting <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/01/group-projects-and-the-secretary-effect/384104/">theory about women and group projects in school</a>.<br /><br />Cate Huston wrote <a href="http://www.catehuston.com/blog/2014/12/31/sigh/">a great post about the bystander problem in tech</a>.<br /><br />The <a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/01/facing-challenge-online-harassment">EFF finally says something about the problem of online harassment</a>. I am encouraged by the fact that they clearly state the problem of harassment as one that inhibits freedom of speech. I am discouraged that they don't seem to be planning to do anything concrete. One of my favorite ideas that I've seen recently is that someone should establish a fund to pay reward money for actionable evidence identifying the people who send death threats- sort of like a CrimeStoppers for online harassment. It seems to me that the EFF would be an excellent organization to help set something like that up. I'm sure there are other ideas worth considering, too. I hope this announcement is just a first step.<br /><br /><a href="https://jilliancyork.com/2015/01/09/a-note-from-kathy-sierra/">Kathy Sierra weighs in on the announcement,</a> via a friend's blog.<br /><br />Jamelle Bouie is fast becoming one of my "must read" writers at Slate. He had two smart pieces this week, one on <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2015/01/jim_webb_wants_to_be_a_white_man_s_democrat_the_former_virginia_senator.2.html">Jim Webb, Democrats, and working class white voters </a>and one on <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2015/01/police_departments_shouldn_t_fear_reform_it_makes_their_jobs_easier_and.html">why police departments should welcome reforms</a>.<br /><br />There's good news on the antibiotics front. Read <a href="http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2015/01/07/antibiotic-resistance-teixobactin/">Ed Yong's article</a> for the basics of what was discovered and how, and then if you're curious about what this means in terms of drug discovery, read <a href="http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/2015/01/08/teixobactin_a_new_antibiotic_from_a_new_platform.php">Derek Lowe's post on the topic</a>. Derek Lowe's blog is one in which it is usually worth reading the comments, and that is the case here, particularly if you are not in the field, because a couple of commenters ask some basic questions and get good, patient answers.<br /><br />But just to keep things in perspective:<br /><br /><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">Much ink on a new antibiotic. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/tbt?src=hash">#tbt</a> to platensimycin, reported ‘06, still preclinical. <a href="http://t.co/l4pZkmirU0">http://t.co/l4pZkmirU0</a> Drug discovery’s hard.<br />— Carmen Drahl (@carmendrahl) <a href="https://twitter.com/carmendrahl/status/553293843014361089">January 8, 2015</a></blockquote><br /><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>Sticking with science, here's a good <a href="http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_magazine/previous_issues/articles/2015_01_08/caredit.a1500008#.VK73PwA6j6o.twitter">piece from Science Careers about the plight of postdocs</a>.<br /><br />And here's a <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/benjamin-okeefe/a-dad-dropped-his-son-off_b_6402888.html?ncid=tweetlnkushpmg00000054">nice story about a dad dropping his gay son off for a date</a>, to end this post with a smile.Cloudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09317847285050447789noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29235839.post-16288286090799789742015-01-08T18:39:00.000-08:002015-01-08T18:39:05.716-08:00Mourning, with NuanceI am about to attempt a post that may be beyond my skill level. I normally wouldn't do that, but I need to work somethings through and I really want to say some of the things in this post... so I am going to try.<br /><div><br /></div><div>I need to say somethings about the horrible attack on the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris. I absolutely condemn these attacks, and I mourn all of the people killed. No one should ever be killed for anything they say, draw, or publish. Full stop. I in no way think the staff of Charlie Hebdo are responsible for this crime.</div><div><br /></div><div>But there is something more I need to say, and it is prompted by the reactions I've seen.</div><div><br /></div><div>I'm not talking about the anti-Muslim backlash, which was sadly predictable and which <a href="http://www.juancole.com/2015/01/sharpening-contradictions-satirists.html">some have argued exactly what the attackers wanted</a>. I condemn any and all attacks on innocent Muslims (i.e., the <a href="http://www.atbreak.com/picts/infographic-muslims-taliban-al-qaida/">vast, vast majority of Muslims</a>) and their places of worship.</div><div><br /></div><div>I am talking more about the entirely understandable lionization of the Charlie Hebdo cartoons. I understand the impulse, but it does not sit well with me.</div><div><br /></div><div>I am a big believer in the power of ideas, and the power of words. One of the reasons I want to publish other people's books is that I want to do my small part to bring more, and more diverse ideas, to the public square. This is also the reason I have gone out of my way to diversify the worldviews to which I listen. That can be infuriating at times, and I wonder why I am forcing myself to listen to people who make me angry. But events like this make me thankful that I've done that, because the many different perspectives help me better understand what is happening.&nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div>This event gave me a particularly clear case in point: the best articulation of why those cartoons matter came from Ross Douthat, a conservative writer with whom I rarely agree. Perhaps it is because of his faith (he is Catholic) that he has thought more deeply about blasphemy and when it is needed than I had, and could articulate <a href="http://douthat.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/01/07/the-blasphemy-we-need/">how the fact that drawing the prophet Mohammed risks death might justify the blasphemy</a>. (Do go read his piece, it is very thoughtful and thought-provoking.)</div><div><br /></div><div>I'll be honest, when I look at those cartoons, I find them offensive. I am an atheist, but I believe in respecting other people's beliefs, and the lack of that respect in the cartoons offends me. I look at the cartoon that has been circulated so widely, the one with the caption "Love is stronger than hate," and I do not see a message of love. I see a message calculated to offend not just radical Muslims, but religious Muslims in general. Giving offense is not a message of love.</div><div><br /></div><div>I understand that the cartoonists at Charlie Hebdo saw elements in Islam in general, and radical Islam in particular, that they wanted to satirize. As I said at the top, I think they had every right to do so and do not think that the offense they gave in any way justifies the actions of the gunmen. I probably even agree with some of the points they wanted to make via their satire.</div><div><br /></div><div>But I also think that they could have turned their intellects and talents to finding a better, more precise way of satirizing these things. There is a <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/8534-there-are-two-kinds-of-humor-one-kind-that-makes">famous Molly Ivins quote about satire</a>:</div><div><br /></div><div>"Satire is traditionally the weapon of the powerless against the powerful. I only aim at the powerful. When satire is aimed at the powerless, it is not only cruel -- it's vulgar."&nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div>The problem I see with the Charlie Hebdo cartoons, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jyllands-Posten_Muhammad_cartoons_controversy">the Danish cartoons that caused an uproar in 2005</a>, is that they are so broad in their caricature that they hit not just the powerful imams issuing fatwas but a wide swath of Muslims, who already face discrimination and marginalization in Europe. That is, there is an aspect of these cartoons that feels very much like a powerful group "punching down."</div><div><br /></div><div>I completely understand that how this looks to me, here in San Diego, is very different from how it looks in Europe. It is obvious to me that the interaction of secular society and Islam is different in the US than it is in Europe, and I would not for a minute claim to understand the reasons for that. I certainly will not claim that we in the US are less racist- perhaps it is best to say that we are differently racist, and that is probably making it hard for me to understand the full context of those cartoons. I acknowledge my ignorance in this regard, and agree with the outpouring of support for Charlie Hebdo's staff that has come from around Europe.&nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div>Still, in our rush to defend free speech, it would be nice if we remembered that right now, not everyone's speech is equally free, and tried to make our analyses reflect that.&nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div><div>Since I believe in the power of ideas, I must acknowledge the power of religion, which to a non-believer like me looks a lot like a container in which to gather a bunch of ideas. So I do not discount the role of Islam in these attacks. <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/foreigners/2015/01/europe_s_confused_debate_about_islam_and_terrorism_europeans_are_both_too.html">Yascha Mounk wrote thoughfully about this at Slate</a>. Islam is not to blame, per se, but it is the container into which a group of radicals are putting the ideas that lead them to think this sort of attack is justified and even necessary, so I can see that we need to consider Islam when we're trying to understand the ideas and intercept the actions of these radicals.</div></div><div><br /></div><div>But I do not think Islam is the only container into which misguided people put ideas that lead to violence. It is just that some of the other containers are so familiar to us that we do not see them.&nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div><div>This is also how we get people overlooking the terrorizing effect of&nbsp;<a href="http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-explosion-rocks-naacp-building-in-colorado-20150106-story.html">the bombing of the NAACP office in Colorado Springs</a>. Thankfully, it did not injure anyone- but it still terrorizes.</div></div><div><br /></div><div>This is how we get a former deputy director of the CIA making this mistake:</div><div><br /></div><div><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">Nope. Anders Breivik in Norway, 2011. 77 dead. <a href="http://t.co/NXOZKYLOfs">http://t.co/NXOZKYLOfs</a> <a href="http://t.co/MlDnyj1EMf">pic.twitter.com/MlDnyj1EMf</a><br />— Matt Pearce (@mattdpearce) <a href="https://twitter.com/mattdpearce/status/552950647922753536">January 7, 2015</a></blockquote></div><div><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div></div><div><br /></div><div>Even the analyses that acknowledge the fact that Christianity has also been used as a container for violence and extremism tend to reference the past- the Crusades, the Inquisition. But we have more recent examples, such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_George_Tiller">the murder of George Tiller</a>.&nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div>The sad fact is that any belief system can be formed into a container for ideas that lead to violence and extremism. There is nothing unique about Islam in this regards.</div><div><br /></div><div>And yet, we only apply the label of "terrorist" to some extremists, and we are remarkably unaware of the absurdity of this. If I were to list the things that actually terrorize me, as in "make me worry about harm coming to my family," Islamic extremists aren't at the top of my list. I am terrorized more by American gun extremists and by the group of my fellow Americans who hold a toxic mix of "patriotic" yet anti-Government beliefs coupled with conservative social values. I worry more about accidentally posting something online that draws the attention of a group like the GamerGate mob and finding myself hounded out of my livelihood and home by threats than I do being caught up in an attack of Islamic radicals.</div><div><br /></div><div>I am white, so I do not generally fear the neo-Nazis, the Klan, and the other violently racist organizations that continue to exist in this country. But <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=zehp3j3lXQ-Y.kITHXYDH4GAM">they are here</a>.&nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div>But these groups are not called terrorists.&nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div>I don't know what to say should happen next. We should mourn the loss of life in Paris, for certain. We should also defend the right to free speech and a life free from terror. But perhaps while we're doing that, we could also look at &nbsp;how unevenly distributed those rights are right now and at the very least acknowledge that this is a problem, and maybe if we did that we would find ourselves better able to separate the violent radicals from those who are merely angry at their own unfair marginalization, and we could make progress towards a better society.</div><div><br /></div><div><i>As I said, this post feels like a stretch for me. I am sure to have gotten things wrong. I welcome corrections and discussion in the comments, but ask that we please all keep our comments respectful to both the people who have been killed and the vast majority of Muslims whose religious beliefs in no way advocate for attacks like this.</i></div>Cloudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09317847285050447789noreply@blogger.com29tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29235839.post-64977305010307125442015-01-06T16:34:00.001-08:002015-01-06T16:34:22.665-08:00Personal Goals List 2015When I decided in 2013 that we should have a <a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2015/01/family-fun-list-2015.html">Family Fun List</a>, I also <a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2013/01/2013-personal-fun-list.html">decided to make a personal fun list</a>. I <a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2014/01/listings-of-fun-part-ii.html">did that again last year</a>, but as you'll see, I didn't do anywhere near as well on completing items on that list as we did on our Family Fun List. This was mostly because I decided that the items on that list weren't my priority after I shook things up <a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2014/04/diversions-unexpected-and-otherwise.html">by quitting my job</a>. I've decided to restructure my personal list a bit for 2015, to see if I can make it better fit what I want to do.<br /><br />But first, here's an accounting of how I did on my 2014 Personal Fun List.<br /><br /><ol><li>Make a mix CD/playlist of new music - Done! I even made a subset to listen to when I run.</li><li>Clean out and organize my sock drawer - Done! And I love being able to find socks and feel fairly confident they won't be all stretched out and end up bunched under the arch of my feet. It's the little things...</li><li>Take a San Diego beer tour with Mr. Snarky - Missed again.</li><li>Go rollerblading - Done! I was going every week for awhile, and may start that again soon.</li><li>Go kayaking with Mr. Snarky - Done! Thanks to <a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2014/08/the-power-of-constraints.html">our week without kids</a>, we had a chance to do our "old route" in Mission Bay. It was very nice.</li><li>Learn how to make a second type of New Zealand savory pie. Missed, much to the chagrin of Mr. Snarky and one of our good Kiwi friends.</li><li>Learn how to make a great margarita - Done! The secret is in having really good tequila, frankly. Fresh lime juice is good, too.</li><li>Take a bubble bath - Done, several times! I even got to take a nice bath in a Japanese style soak tub during our <a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2014/06/a-grand-time-in-torrance.html">stay in Torrance</a>.</li><li>Go indoor rock climbing - Missed. But Pumpkin has fun at indoor rock climbing camp over the summer, so I may yet get to do this as part of a family outing.</li><li>Try a new restaurant - Done, at least a couple times.</li><li>Try stand up paddleboarding - Missed</li><li>Catch up on Scalzi's Old Man's War universe. Missed. But I read lots of other good things, including Scalzi's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IHCBE1C/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=B00IHCBE1C&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=wanderscient-20&amp;linkId=ZHWSF2S34EJK6J7S">Lock In.</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=wanderscient-20&amp;l=as2&amp;o=1&amp;a=B00IHCBE1C" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> &nbsp;And I saw him speak and got him to sign my copy of Lock In.</li></ol><div>I think one of the reasons I missed on so many of these items is that I prioritized writing and business related goals once I made the leap and left full time employment. I feel good about that decision, so I'm not at all unhappy with how 2014 went for me. For 2015, I've decided to acknowledge the pull of the professional goals, and have divided my list into three: personal, writing, and business. I'll talk about the personal and writing goals here, but will only list my business goals. I'll write more about what they mean and why I chose them in this month's installment of my newsletter,&nbsp;which will be out on Friday. If you're interested in knowing more about how I'm approaching starting and growing my business, you might want to head over and <a href="https://tinyletter.com/foundingchaos">subscribe</a>. (I'll leave that link active for a couple of weeks, but then redact it, just like before.)</div><div><br /></div><div>So, without further ado, here are my personal goals for 2015:</div><div><ol><li>Find a yoga class that fits my schedule and make it a weekly habit. I'm missing yoga, both mentally and physically.</li><li>Take a San Diego Beer Tour with Mr. Snarky. Third time's a charm, right?</li><li>Wear my two new dresses at least once each. I've fallen out of the habit of wearing dresses and skirts, and that's silly.</li><li>Take a bubble bath.</li><li>Go kayaking.</li><li>Read three sci-fi books by new-to-me authors. (I'll be doing lots of other reading, too, but I need a nudge to remind myself to make time to read full length books that won't get picked by my book club...)</li><li>Learn how to make a second type of New Zealand pie. I'll do it this year, I swear!</li><li>Go rollerblading.</li><li>Play my violin and viola at least once each. I miss making music, and maybe this will lead me back to it.</li></ol><div>And here are my writing goals:</div></div><div><ol><li>Complete three kids books. I have one halfway written, a solid idea and some notes for a second one... and surely I'll come up with something for the third! I enjoy writing children's books, so I suspect I'll keep doing this for as long as I can find someone to publish them. I submitted two manuscripts this week, in fact- a second Petunia book went to my publisher, and the other book that some of you read for me went to an agent. I won an agent review of a manuscript via my donation to the <a href="http://weneeddiversebooks.org/">We Need Diverse Books </a>campaign. I don't expect anything more from this but some professional feedback on my story- but I'm really looking forward to getting that. If I'm going to keep writing children's books, I want to keep improving at it.</li><li>Write twelve columns for Chronicle Vitae. I've a good 6 or 7 ideas for columns, so this should be doable.</li><li>Write at least twelve posts for my blog about management and productivity. I've got several ideas for posts written in my writing notebook, so I am feeling pretty confident about this one, too.</li><li>Submit another column to a publication or a blog post for syndication. I'm not so sure about this one- I don't have any ideas for topics yet, but presumably something will come to me. It was fun to see <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2014/12/22/girls-daughters-princesses-movies-dresses-girlie-toys-gender-column/20779455/">my column published at USA Today</a>, and it was good for me to have to cut my word count down, so I want to try again.</li></ol><div>And here are the business goals, which I'll discuss more in this week's newsletter:</div></div><div><ol><li>Develop and publish an Android app</li><li>Publish three short ebooks from other authors</li><li>Set up my t-shirt shop in a more sustainable location</li><li>Beta test my idea for helping academics with management and figure out how to make it a sustainable offering.</li></ol><div>That should keep me busy this year! Feel free to share any goals or resolutions you have in the comments.</div></div>Cloudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09317847285050447789noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29235839.post-39618159036645199532015-01-04T10:23:00.000-08:002015-01-04T10:31:12.941-08:00Family Fun List 2015I don't make New Year's resolutions these days. If you do, you might enjoy my latest Tungsten Hippo post about <a href="http://tungstenhippo.com/content/read-your-resolutions">books and resolutions</a>.<br /><br />I do make lists, though. A couple of years ago, I decided to write a <a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2013/01/2013-family-fun-list.html">Family Fun List for the new year</a> as part of our New Year's Eve celebrations. That was so successful that <a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2014/01/listings-of-fun-part-i.html">we did it again last year</a>, and now it is a tradition.<br /><br />Here's how we did on the 2014 list:<br /><br /><ol><li>Go to Legoland (Petunia) - We went twice, thanks to the special "buy one ticket and come back again for free" deal. We all love Legoland. Petunia wants to stay in the hotel there some time. Maybe we will do a "staycation" this year and do that. We'll see.</li><li>Go ice skating (Pumpkin) - We did this as part of someone's birthday party. Pumpkin didn't end up liking it that much.</li><li>Go fishing (Mr. Snarky) - We attempted to do this in Catalina, but the kids didn't like the spot Mr. Snarky found. So in the end, we crossed this one off in Arizona over Christmas break.</li><li>Ride a surrey bike again (me- I am going to pick this every year until the kids are too old to agree to do it! It is just downright fun.) - <a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2014/01/of-itchy-fingers-and-ridiculous-bikes.html">Done!</a> &nbsp;</li><li>Buy ice cream from an ice cream truck (Petunia) - We did this a couple of times. The kids pick the most horrible ice cream, but they love it.</li><li>Go camping (Pumpkin) - We camped in Joshua Tree right before Thanksgiving. Brrrr. But beautiful. And being the age that we are, Mr. Snarky and I had fun recreating the iconic photos from U2's Joshua Tree album for our Christmas cards.</li><li>Buy donuts at a donut shop (Mr. Snarky) - Done very early on. And a huge hit with everyone except me (I prefer cookies).</li><li>Visit the new downtown library (me) - <a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2014/09/a-seriously-good-weekend.html">This was a lot of fun</a>, and we should do it more often. We tried to go back over Thanksgiving weekend with my parents, but the hours hand changed and it was closed when we got there.</li><li>Walk on the beach and collect shells (Petunia) - Pumpkin groaned about this one a bit, but ended up having a lot of fun. I tweeted a couple of pictures of this outing, which I'll include below.</li><li>Hike to the top of a hill or mountain (Pumpkin) - Mr. Snarky has grudgingly agreed that we can consider our <a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2014/08/trip-story-alamosa.html">Great Sand Dunes hike </a>as satisfying this one. Turns out, the kids aren't so into this sort of hiking- Pumpkin only picked it because Mr. Snarky had picked it the year before and not gotten to do it. (Awwww.)</li><li>Go on a boat ride (Mr. Snarky) - We road on a boat to Catalina. Unfortunately, the seas were unusually rough and the kids got sick. They had a lot of fun in Catalina, though, so hopefully we can try again sometime!</li><li>Go to the dinosaur museum (me- we have a membership, after all!) - I think we went twice before the membership expired.</li></ol><br />Here are the pictures of shell collecting:<br /><br /><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">Walking on the beach, looking for shells. <a href="http://t.co/wNUy0mCLFZ">pic.twitter.com/wNUy0mCLFZ</a><br />— Wandering Scientist (@wandsci) <a href="https://twitter.com/wandsci/status/531610796237676544">November 10, 2014</a></blockquote><br /><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><br /><br /><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">Walking on the beach, looking for shells, part 2. <a href="http://t.co/QAlnMlWDHu">pic.twitter.com/QAlnMlWDHu</a><br />— Wandering Scientist (@wandsci) <a href="https://twitter.com/wandsci/status/531610709709189120">November 10, 2014</a></blockquote><br /><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><br /><br />And here's our list for 2015:<br /><br /><ol><li>Go buy a doughnut and a doughnut shop (Petunia)</li><li>Got to a candy shop and buy candy (Pumpkin)</li><li>Go on an Amtrak or Coaster train (Mr. Snarky)</li><li>Go to an art museum (me)</li><li>Have a beach day with friends (Petunia)</li><li>Make a LEGO town in the living room (Pumpkin)</li><li>Go to the Safari Park and see the tigers (Mr. Snarky)</li><li>Explore a new neighborhood (me)</li><li>Visit the old mission in Mission Valley (Petunia- with some prompting from Mr. Snarky)</li><li>Walk around our neighborhood and look at holiday decorations (Pumpkin- to be done either at Halloween or Christmas time)</li><li>Visit the Friendship Park at the border (Mr. Snarky)</li><li>Ride a surrey bike (me- I'm telling you, it will be on the list for as long as everyone else lets me put it there)</li></ol><div>We've already done one of the things on the list- yesterday, <a href="http://crappythingsimade.tumblr.com/post/107124570806/lego-town-we-write-a-family-fun-list-every-new">we built LEGO Town</a>.&nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div>I also write lists for my own goals, but I'll talk about those in a separate post. Right now, it is time for me to go take down some Christmas decorations!</div>Cloudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09317847285050447789noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29235839.post-51038424698624388802015-01-02T18:07:00.002-08:002015-01-02T18:07:52.058-08:00Weekend Reading: The Catching Up EditionHappy new year, everyone! I'm easing my way back in from two weeks of being mostly on vacation. I polished a few pieces of writing, did about an hour of contract work, and did some business-related reading over the last two weeks, but that translates to <i>very </i>sporadic working. So this was my first day attempting something like fulltime, and wow, this has been an interesting day. In my defense, I'm still getting over a mild cold, and Mr. Snarky and Pumpkin were both home today, too. Petunia has pajama day at day care and definitely did not want to miss that, since she had received new homemade pajamas from my Mom for Christmas, complete with a matching set for her doll. Or, as it turns out, for her stuffed bear, who visited day care for share day today.<br /><br />Pumpkin was actually pretty good about not interrupting me, but Mr. Snarky decided to clean out our hall closet (hooray!) and interrupted me quite a lot (boo).<br /><br />Anyway, since I've been on vacation, I don't have that many links for you. But I do have a few, including one to an article I wrote! So let's get started.<br /><br />First of all, In honor of the new year and people who may have resolved to start looking for a new job this year, I'm running a <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/121173-navigating-the-path-to-industry-a-hiring-manager-s-advice-for-academics">GoodReads giveaway of Navigating the Path to Industry</a>. Two winners will be selected by GoodReads, and I'll send them paperback copies of the book. The giveaway runs until January 16. Tell all your friends!<br /><br />In preparation for the giveaway (and based on some of the business-related reading I did over the holidays), I revamped <a href="http://annorlundaenterprises.com/books/navigating-the-path-to-industry/">the page for Navigating the Path to Industry on my publisher site</a>. Check it out- it now includes a link to an excerpt on informational interviews. Share the link with all your friends!<br /><br />I also did an interview with Chemjobber (who <a href="http://chemjobber.blogspot.com/2014/12/book-review-navigating-path-to-industry.html">reviewed the book earlier</a>), which will be in a podcast soon. I will definitely share the link when that goes live. We had a great time talking, so I think it will be fun to listen to.<br /><br />In other news, I had an article published at USA Today, about <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2014/12/22/girls-daughters-princesses-movies-dresses-girlie-toys-gender-column/20779455/">why we stopped fighting the princess invasion</a>. I decided not to link that to any social media accounts, but did reference my kids' books in my bio. It went live on Dec. 22, but I didn't find out that it was live until after Christmas. I only found out because one guy wanted to tell me that it was silly to worry about these things since boys and girls are just different. He wanted to tell me that so much that he tracked down my @wandsci twitter handle to do so. I think he completely failed to understand the point of the article, but I guess I'm grateful for his determination to tell me that I'm silly, since otherwise I might not have found out it had been published until a check arrived.<br /><br />Anyway, I'm reasonably proud of how that article turned out, so by all means- share that link with all of your friends, too!<br /><br />Speaking about gender stereotypes, did you guys catch the story right before Christmas about <a href="http://www.womenyoushouldknow.net/girls-dont-like-toys-president-takes-annual-toys-tots-sort-event-stereotypical-awesome/">President Obama busting them while sorting toys for Toys for Tots</a>?<br /><br />I suspect you have seen this awesome photo already:<br /><br /><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">via <a href="https://twitter.com/Alex44">@Alex44</a>: In which President Obama wears a tiara <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WomenInSTEM?src=hash">#WomenInSTEM</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WHScienceFair?src=hash">#WHScienceFair</a> <a href="http://t.co/e98lBHJEWf">http://t.co/e98lBHJEWf</a> <a href="http://t.co/JhN8UxyAvZ">pic.twitter.com/JhN8UxyAvZ</a><br />— Ingrid Williams (@imagirlscout) <a href="https://twitter.com/imagirlscout/status/551118311619325952">January 2, 2015</a></blockquote><br /><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><br /><br />But thanks to that particular tweet, I learned that it was taken at <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2014/05/27/president-obama-marvels-brilliant-minds-incredible-inventions-white-house-science-fa">a White House STEM outreach event</a>, which makes it even more awesome.<br /><div><br /></div><div>My final piece of news is that I'll be writing a monthly column for Chronicle Vitae, starting this month. In fact, I have already submitted my first piece for editing (that was one of the things I was polishing over the holiday break). I won't mention that much here, but will certainly cross-promote my columns over on my "real name" account. If you want to follow my real name Twitter account or blog and don't have the info, email me at wandsci at gmail dot com, or DM me on Twitter (if we follow each other on my @wandsci account). Or keep an eye out for the occasional pseudo-self RTs I do. I suppose you could also track it down from the name that USA Today piece is published under. Or go look up my Amazon author profile, and I think you can get to my real name Twitter from there. But really, it would be easier to email me! It isn't top secret, I'm just hiding this blog from being associated with my real name on Google.</div><div><br /></div><div>Anyway, as I was researching a point I wanted to make in that first column, I came across a great old article from Jeffery Pfeffer and Robert Sutton on <a href="http://web.stanford.edu/group/knowledgebase/cgi-bin/1999/11/15/the-perils-of-internal-competition/">why internal competition isn't such a great idea</a>. I can think of some professors I knew in graduate school who could stand to read that article.&nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div>That's all for now. Regular link posts should resume next week, as should regular blog posts. I have a bunch of things I want to write about right now, and past experience tells me I should get those posts written before the urge passes.</div>Cloudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09317847285050447789noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29235839.post-67372140398103164232014-12-30T20:04:00.000-08:002014-12-30T20:07:58.392-08:00HomeWe just got home from 10 days in Arizona, where we spent Christmas with my family. We stayed with my parents in the house in which I grew up. So I just got home from... home.<br /><br />We had a great visit, and I decided that I'm going to do a proper trip story about it this time. I'll do that soon. I'm not up to that much effort tonight!<br /><br />The drive between my parents' house in Mesa and San Diego is roughly 6 hours without stopping. We stopped twice- once for a snack in Gila Bend, and once for lunch and some park time in Yuma. I am the only family member capable of staying awake in the car on a long drive after lunch, so I drove the Yuma to San Diego leg. The kids were asleep for a large portion of that, leaving me free to listen to the grown up CDs that were loaded into the car. Mr. Snarky forgot to pack extra CDs for this trip, so I had exactly three grown up CDs to choose from, and they all happened to be New Zealand music. I had both discs of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0015FWGOC/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=B0015FWGOC&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=wanderscient-20&amp;linkId=HPUXIRRXHP2745IT">Nature's Best New Zealand's Top 30 Songs Of All Time</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=wanderscient-20&amp;l=as2&amp;o=1&amp;a=B0015FWGOC" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> and the first disc of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B7RIBZG/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=B00B7RIBZG&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=wanderscient-20&amp;linkId=YARJRZPMJSSS53CJ">Pacific Reggae Volume 1.</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=wanderscient-20&amp;l=as2&amp;o=1&amp;a=B00B7RIBZG" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br /><br />I wasn't really in the mood for reggae, although I recommend checking out <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_reggae">Pacific reggae</a> at least once- it has a different vibe from Caribbean reggae. While you're at it check out some NZ hip hop. <a href="http://youtu.be/4dBTLZqO2T0">Chains by DLT featuring Che Fu</a> would be a good start. So I listened to the Nature's Best CDs. Although many people would probably recognize the Crowded House and Split Enz songs in this compilation, most of the other songs have a definite "world famous in New Zealand" feel to them. There were several Dave Dobbyn songs. Beside You is my favorite of the ones on the CD;<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="285" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/9y-j5SwSjtw" width="380"></iframe><br /><br />But if you've ever watched a rugby game held in New Zealand, you've probably heard Slice of Heaven:<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="285" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/JBMY9XGEI_I" width="380"></iframe><br /><br />(Hard to believe that the two videos feature the same man, but they do- just many, many years apart. Dave Dobbyn had a very long career! Mr. Snarky explains that the backing band in the second video are <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbs_(band)">The Herbs</a>, a well known NZ reggae band, and that the animated portions of this video are from the movie Footrot Flats- "a classic.")<br /><br />But the song that really takes me back to New Zealand is Dominion Road, by the Mutton Birds:<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="285" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/PfdvAVkg1X0" width="380"></iframe><br /><br />When I first visited Mr. Snarky in New Zealand, he lived just off Dominion Road, and I remember him playing me this song in the beat up old car we rented to drive around New Zealand for three weeks. That trip was our "trial run," to see if it was worth him moving to the US to give our relationship a shot. We had a great trip, he moved to the US, and the rest is history.<br /><br />I've written before about how Auckland (the city in which Dominion Road is located) <a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2013/10/a-sort-of-homecoming.html">feels like another home to me</a>.<br /><br />So I was driving from my original home to my current home, listening to music that made me think of the place I consider another home. It made me think a bit about the nature of "home," and I decided that to me, home is a place where I feel a special kind of comfortable. I don't know what exactly gives me that feeling. It isn't just time spent living there. I've really liked living in other places that never felt like home, and I've never actually lived in Auckland. Regardless, I am happy to have three homes. I wonder if I'll accumulate any more.Cloudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09317847285050447789noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29235839.post-81543802278199637972014-12-26T12:43:00.000-08:002014-12-26T12:43:34.662-08:00Year in Review: 2014It is time for my annual review of the closing year, so that will take the place of my usual Friday links post. I pick a few posts from each month to review, based on the somewhat random criteria of popularity (with me or others) and representative nature.<br /><br />For more info, see the <a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2013/12/year-in-review-2013.html">2013</a>, <a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2012/12/year-in-review-2012.html">2012</a>, and <a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2011/12/2011-in-review.html">2011</a> editions.<br /><br />One of the interesting things for me about going through my 2014 posts was seeing the pressure building in the first half of the year. Looking just at my own life, I am ending 2014 in a much happier place than I started it. Looking more globally, though, it is clear this has been a tough year.<br /><br />In <b>January</b>, I ranted about sexism. I ranted about how to <a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2014/01/mini-rant-on-making-stem-attractive-to.html">make STEM more attractive to women</a>&nbsp;and about <a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2014/01/a-rant-in-two-parts-with-epilogue.html">men feeling entitled to women's stories</a>, and people judging other people's decisions even though they do not understand the full context in which they are made... but there is also an epilogue about using mindfulness to deal with this nonsense.<br /><br />I also was working through a lot of questions about my own choices, which led me to write a&nbsp;<a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2014/01/some-things-i-know-that-i-wish-i-could.html">list of some things I know but struggle to really believe</a>.<br /><br /><b>February</b> was a tough month, at least judging from my posts. I looked for a&nbsp;<a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2014/02/on-productivity.html">more inclusive view of productivity</a>, and wondered&nbsp;<a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2014/02/earn-it.html">whether it is fair to make people earn your respect</a>. I also wrote about the <a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2014/02/cost.html">cost of spending so much time in a male-dominated environment</a>.<br /><br />In <b>March</b>, I talked about&nbsp;<a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2014/03/low-stress-side-projects.html">keeping side projects low stress</a>. I posted <a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2014/03/dinner-during-dora-marathon-nz-steak.html">my recipe for New Zealand steak and cheese pies</a>. And the assholes were getting me down, so I wrote a&nbsp;<a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2014/03/lazy-isnt-accidental.html">rant about how having an autism spectrum disorder doesn't make people assholes, being an asshole does</a>.<br /><br />Things were coming to a head in <b>April</b>. On the bright side,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2014/04/seven.html">Pumpkin turned seven</a>. But I was really struggling at work. I posted some <a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2014/04/surviving-as-woman-in-very-male-world.html">tricks I use for surviving as a woman in a male-dominated field</a>. And then <a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2014/04/diversions-unexpected-and-otherwise.html">I quit my job</a>.<br /><br />In <b>May</b>, I discovered that&nbsp;<a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2014/05/contents-under-pressure.html">quitting my job didn't immediately relieve the pressure</a>. (I found my driver's license, by the way. It had fallen down between the driver's seat and the center console in the car.) But <a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2014/05/contents-under-pressure.html">following my arrow was already starting to feel pretty good</a>. Things weren't that great outside my head, though- and the horror of the Isla Vista shootings led me to write about&nbsp;<a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2014/05/the-woman-in-mirror.html">starting the work against racism and sexism with myself</a>.<br /><br />Mr. Snarky and I also continued our tour of unlikely tourist spots in Southern California, and <a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2014/06/a-grand-time-in-torrance.html">spent a weekend in Torrance</a>. I also turned 42! I didn't write the post about it until <b>June</b>, though. I also wrote about <a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2014/06/things-i-would-like-to-remember.html">some things I want to remember</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;wrote a <a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2014/06/asking-saves-kids.html">post for National ASK Day, about asking other parents about guns in their home</a>.<br /><br /><b>July</b> started with me writing &nbsp;about <a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2014/07/summer-fun.html">what a wonderful June I had</a>. July itself wasn't too shabby either- <a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2014/07/colorado-tour-awards-show-version.html">we had a terrific family vacation in Colorado</a>. I also worked to <a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2014/07/my-body-and-me.html">make peace with my aging body</a>.<br /><br />Ugly things happened in <b>August</b>. Words failed me as <a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2014/08/words-fail-me.html">I contemplated the events in Ferguson and beyond</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;I wrote about how&nbsp;<a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2014/08/the-hard-part.html">we can't skip the hard part in confronting racism</a>. In response to Robin Williams' suicide, I thought about <a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2014/08/maintenance.html">the difficulty of maintaining health, particularly when you have a chronic disease</a>.<br /><br />In <b>September</b>, I <a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2014/09/navigating-path-to-industry-available.html">released Navigating the Path to Industry</a>. I've been pleased with how well it has done, but by all means- buy a copy and tell all your friends! On the family front,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2014/09/the-dawning-of-age-of-questioning.html">Pumpkin started asking some truly hard questions</a>&nbsp;and I discovered <a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2014/09/dinner-during-dora-miraculous-chicken.html">a miraculous recipe for pretzel chicken</a>.<br /><br />I apparently failed to write a post for Petunia's fifth birthday in <b>October</b>, but I did write <a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2014/10/happy-fluffy-things.html">a post with some of her trademark phrases</a>. My second children's book,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2014/10/its-release-day-for-petunia.html">Petunia, the Girl Who Was NOT a Princess, was released</a>. I haven't received my first royalties report on that yet, so I don't have a good feel for how it is doing, but by all means- buy a copy and tell all you friends! Around the time my Petunia book was released, the We Need Diverse Books campaign was in full swing, and I wrote about <a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2014/10/diverse-books-for-kids.html">the need for diverse books for kids</a>, and included some recommendations.<br /><br />In <b>November,&nbsp;</b><a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2014/11/science-with-kids-gravity.html">I did a fun science experiment with my kids</a> (it demonstrates gravity).<br /><a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2014/11/calling-all-writers-current-and-future.html">I decided to become a publisher</a>, and the fallout from the sexist shirt worn during the Rosetta comet landing led me to <a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2014/11/on-fitting-in.html">ponder the difficulty of fitting in</a>.<br /><br />I didn't write that much in <b>December</b>, but I did write about how <a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2014/12/getting-organized-small-changes-can.html">small changes can help me feel more organized</a>. I have several interesting post ideas written down in the writing journal I mentioned in my <a href="http://www.wandering-scientist.com/2014/12/gearing-up-for-christmas-gift-ideas-list.html">gift ideas post</a>, so stay tuned for some more posts soon.<br /><br />I'm on pseudo-vacation until the new year, though... so those interesting post ideas may have to wait until January. In case I don't post again in 2014: thank you for reading this year. I am so grateful to have my community of readers and commenters here. I wish you all a happy new year!<br /><br />Cloudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09317847285050447789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29235839.post-56194561970899358072014-12-19T16:39:00.002-08:002014-12-19T16:40:20.375-08:00Weekend Reading: The Concise EditionToday's been a busy day with home and work things and the school holiday show... so my links post is going to be unusually concise. It should give you more time to read the links themselves, right?<br /><br />Funny: <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/humor/daily-shouts/ayn-rand-reviews-childrens-movies">Ayn Rand Reviews Children's Movies</a>, by Mallory Ortberg.<br /><br />Sad: <a href="http://www.wired.com/2014/12/mit-scientists-on-women-in-stem/">Three female MIT computer scientists do a Reddit AMA... and it goes exactly how you think it would</a>. If you wonder how it would go, just read the comments on the Wired article! Otherwise, don't. They are depressing.<br /><br />Finally: <a href="http://www.themarysue.com/jimmy-wales-not-taking-gamergate-crap/">A big name tech guy tells of GamerGaters</a><br /><br />Thougt-provoking: <a href="http://jezebel.com/i-dont-know-what-to-do-with-good-white-people-1671201391">I Don't Know What to Do With Good White People</a>, by Brit Bennett.<br /><br />Honest: <a href="http://verysmartbrothas.com/men-just-dont-trust-women-and-this-is-a-problem/">Men Just Don't Trust Women. And This Is a Problem</a>, by Damon Young.<br /><br />Eye-opening: <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/12/17/serial-missed-its-chance-to-show-how-unfair-the-criminal-justice-system-really-is/">A design flaw in the criminal justice syste</a>,&nbsp;by Sarah Lustbader. The problem is probably not the one you're thinking of.<br /><br />Insightful: <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2014/12/torture_shouldn_t_be_a_partisan_issue_pardon_those_responsible_to_restore.html">Torture should not be a partisan issue</a>, by Jamelle Bouie.<br /><br />Nifty: <a href="http://gizmodo.com/volvo-created-a-bike-helmet-that-warns-drivers-about-ne-1673155290">Volvo created a bike helmet that warns drivers about nearby cyclists</a>.<br /><br />Case study in unintended consequences of incentives: &nbsp;<a href="https://www.blogger.com/Pennywise%20and%20pound-foolish:%20misidentified%20cells%20and%20competitive%20pressures%20in%20scientific%20knowledge-building">Pennywise and pound-foolish: misidentified cells and competitive pressures in scientific knowledge-building</a>, by Janet D. Stemwedl<br /><br />True: <a href="http://charliebink.tumblr.com/post/103479579577/charliebink-what-shape-are-you-400-000">the problem with "just be yourself,"</a>&nbsp;by Charlie Bink.<br /><br />Smart: <a href="http://niemanreports.org/articles/shani-o-hilton-on-building-a-newsroom-at-buzzfeed/">Interview with Shani O. Hilton on building the BuzzFeed newsroom</a>. "The fun thing has been in practice that means that the more diversity that you get in your office, the easier it is to get more diversity, because you hire people, you trust them.<br /><br />You say, “Hey, I’m looking for this position to be filled.” Then their networks open up to you in a way that is really great. It’s been really nice, because we’ve seen this kind of accelerated growth, in terms of diversity on staff, and it’s just really rewarding."<br /><br />Good: <a href="http://thedoctortjeckleburgreview.com/2014/11/18/essays-amongst-giants/">an essay on science, art, and life... and three mice at the Smithsonian</a>,&nbsp;by E. A. Farro.<br /><br /><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">Pub Chalkboard Of The Day <a href="http://t.co/8mSRFyV19x">http://t.co/8mSRFyV19x</a> <a href="http://t.co/96d31yoDUq">pic.twitter.com/96d31yoDUq</a><br />— The Poke (@ThePoke) <a href="https://twitter.com/ThePoke/status/545941714238582786">December 19, 2014</a></blockquote>Happy weekend, everyone! And maybe Merry Christmas, too... it remains to be seen if I'll post again before Christmas.<br /><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>Cloudhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09317847285050447789noreply@blogger.com0